Naruto of the Nine Beasts
by Burning Shadow Wolf
Summary: Naruto goes to Suna with the Third Hokage; there he finds scrolls left behind by Sasori. Now a puppeteer, watch as Naruto of the Nine Beasts rises. Mildly Dark Naruto, Puppeteer Naruto, Naruto/Ino pairing.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello all,  
>This is my second ever story, so all reviews are welcome. <strong>

**I have always enjoyed Puppet Naruto stories so I thought I would take a shot at it. Also anyone with puppet ideas are encouraged to send then to me via review. All ideas and suggestions will be taken into consideration and I'll try and include as many as I can.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything related to it, except for MY puppets!  
><strong>

**Chapter 1- Birth Of A Legend**

4 year old Naruto Uzumaki was happy, no he was beyond happy, he was ecstatic. Why was he in such a good mood? Simple; the third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi or as he liked to call him old man, had told him that he was going on vacation to Suna with him. Currently Naruto was running circles around the Hokage and the Anbu that would be escorting them. They all smiled at the blondes antics; even if you couldn't tell with the Anbu. Sarutobi chuckled as the little blonde bundle of energy kept asking question after question about Suna, and anything else under the sun, he answered all of these and more while they walked along the path to Suna. Night came soon after they reached the border between Fire and Wind Country.

"Alright Naruto, we're going to camp here for the night," called Sarutobi to the blonde that had run up ahead of them.

"Ahhhhh, come on old man we can still go on," whined Naruto as he grudgingly made his way back the Hokage and Anbu.

"True, but as a wise man once said; early to bed, early to rise," said Hiruzen in a wise voice.

"Huh?" said Naruto with his head tilted to the side. The Anbu had to stifle chuckles as they saw the Hokage's massive sweat drop from the Naruto's response. Sighing, Sarutobi tried another tactic to get the endless ball of energy to rest.

"It means Naruto that the sooner we get to bed, the sooner we can get up and make it Suna with more time to explore," said Sarutobi as he mentally patted himself on the back when he saw Naruto almost sprint to get ready for bed. The Anbu this time couldn't stop the chuckles that escaped their lips before setting up for patrol and watch duties for the night.

Like the old man said Naruto woke up early the next morning and noticed that his travelling companions were already up and clearing away the camp site. Packing up his sleeping bag, he waited for the others to finish with the rest of the camp. Once everything was secure and there was no trace of a camp ever being there, they set off through the deserts of Wind Country. It was a little after midday when the gates of the village could be seen over the dunes; excited at the site of another village Naruto was anxious to explore it. The Hokage noticed his littlest companion was bouncing on the balls of his feet with every step he was so excited. Once they reached the gates of the village they were greeted by the Kazekage and his children.

"Ah welcome Hokage-dono, I hope your journey was pleasant these deserts can be quite dangerous," said the Kazekage.

"Not at all Kazekage-dono, allow me to introduce Naruto Uzumaki," said the Hokage as he gestured to Naruto who bowed in respect to the Kazekage. _'WHAT! I never thought I'd live to see the day that Naruto Uzumaki would show anyone respect!' _thought the Hokage and the Anbu as they discreetly tried to release whatever genjutsu had been placed on them.

"These are my children, my eldest daughter Temari, my middle son Kankuro, and my youngest child Gaara," said the Kazekage as he gestured to each of his children as he introduced them. Nodding to all of them, Sarutobi spoke in a business like tone.

"Now shall we begin the negotiations Kazekage-dono?" Nodding the affirmative the Kazekage led them into the village.

"Yes we shall, let's go to council chambers and get started," said the Kazekage as the two kages walked off to the tower in the center of the village. The Anbu decided to let Naruto play with the other children for a while but keep an eye on him from a distance.

It was well into the night before Naruto and the Kazekage's children decided to rest for the night. Naruto noticed the Anbu off in the distance and waved to them shouting that he was ready to go to the hotel. The Anbu were surprised that a 4 year old noticed them, even when some of Suna's jounin couldn't sense their presence. Getting over their shock they led him to the hotel were they would be staying during their time in Suna.

Sleep alluded Naruto that night, he was just too excited to sleep so being the curious child he was he decided to sneak out and explore the village. Arriving at the village wall he walked along it comparing the village's size to Konoha. While he was walking he noticed something drawn on the wall, it was a small faded red scorpion. Brushing his hands over the drawing, Naruto watched in awe as a black circle appeared around the scorpion but let out a surprised yelp when a trap door suddenly opened below him and he fell onto an old mattress. He looked up in surprise as the trap door closed again and lights came on revealing the room be filled with wooden body parts, tools, and piles of scrolls. He noticed two other doors on the far side of the room, opening the first one he noticed that it had jars of strange liquids lining the walls. The second room was full of almost every kind of weapon there is, from kunai to zanbato's. Going back to the scroll and parts room, Naruto noticed a single scroll setting in the middle of a work bench. Curious he opened it and read what it said.

_To my pupil,_

_First off allow me to introduce myself, I am Sasori of the Red Sand, and I am the greatest puppeteer to ever come from Suna. I have abandoned this village and left this room with all my knowledge to mock this pathetic village that no one will ever be able to match me as a puppeteer. If you study from these scrolls you will either become a puppet master or die trying._

'_I'll show you, I'll become the best puppet master there is and then I'll kick your butt Sasori,' _thought Naruto as he looked through the piles of scrolls, finding one labeled '_Basics of Puppet Jutsu' _he opened it and began reading through it. About half way through it he was confused, _'What's chakra?' _he thought. Looking through the scrolls he found one labeled _'Basics of Chakra' _and began reading through it.

It had been two weeks since the negotiation began, and the village's council had stopped the two kages from reaching an agreement at least 10 times in that time. But Sarutobi wasn't worried about the council or the alliance at the moment; no he was worried because Naruto has been missing for the past two weeks. He sent his Anbu in search of the boy in hopes that they would be able to find him out exploring the villages. When they reported that they couldn't find him, the Kazekage had sent his own Anbu out in search of Naruto as well. Walking into his hotel room the Hokage let out a sad sigh, _'Naruto, where are you?' _

-With Naruto-

If Sasori himself was there training the boy he would be in for a shock. Naruto soaked up everything that he learned and in a matter of hours could have it mastered and maybe even found a way to improve on it. He was a genius when it came to the ninja arts, during his first week training from Sasori's scrolls he had managed to create chakra strings, attach them to an object and control it for a good period of time. His second week there he focused mainly on chakra control; he mastered the wall walking technique and was working on kunai balancing.

At the end of his second week Naruto had at least mid chuunin chakra control and it was still increasing. Looking for another scroll to begin training from he found one that was labeled _'Poison's,'_ interested he opened it and continued his training in the art of puppetry.

-With The Hokage-

Two months, two months since the negotiations for an alliance with Suna started and they were just about finished. Two months since young Naruto had vanished, and in those two months no one had been able to find him. Sarutobi sighed again as he sat on his bed in his hotel room, he had just returned from another day of finishing the negotiations and looking for Naruto. He was about to go to sleep when there was a knock on the door. Curious he went to answer it, he found an Anbu and the boy he considered a grandson with him, Naruto.

"Naruto, where have you been?" asked the kage as he brought Naruto into a hug. The Anbu silently left feeling he was intruding on a private moment.

"Training," was the short reply from the blonde. Surprised, Sarutobi brought Naruto into the room and silenced it for privacy.

"What kind of training, Naruto?" asked the old kage. So Naruto told him about falling into the room, his training in the puppet arts, and anything else he learned. He of course left out certain aspects of the training, such as Human Puppets and some of the nastier poisons he knew. To say Sarutobi was impressed would be an understatement; he was happy for his surrogate grandson and knew that the boy would be a powerful ninja when he was older. It was the next day when the negotiations finally ended, with the Kazekage threating to disband the council if they tried to stop another agreement. Needless to say that shut them up. Sarutobi was currently at the gates of the village with his companions ready to leave, the Kazekage and his children were there to see them off. Once goodbyes were exchanged and Naruto promised to keep in touch with the Sand Siblings, they set off.

Sarutobi watched as Naruto was checking their surroundings for possible enemies or threats. He was sad that his grandson's childhood was all but over, but proud that he had become so strong. _'Maybe now he'll be able to protect himself from those idiotic villagers,' _thought Sarutobi as the gates of the village could be seen on the horizon. The aged kage had one last thought as they reached the gates of the village, _'Things should be interesting from now on.'_

**Well there's the first chapter hope you all liked it, REVIEW PLEASE!**_  
><em>**And don't forget to send in puppet ideas.**

**Tell next time**

**BSW  
><strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello all, I'm back with a new chapter, Hope you like it.**

**gohan90- thank you for pointing out the mistake, I have gone back and corrected it. Also remember Naruto at the beginning was a child who had never had a friend before, and if given the chance would take any friends he could get, even if he didn't play with them long. As to them keeping in touch, Naruto could use Sarutobi's monkey's to send a message. That will play significance later on in the story. As to pairing, I'm not sure who Naruto will be paired with, but as to your suggestion to use a person who matches Naruto darker nature, remember that Naruto is only MILDLY dark in this fic and as such there will be times when he is somewhat his usual self, less hyper, stronger, and smarter of course. But thanks for the review and the suggestion, I appreciate any and all feedback. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto  
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**Chapter 2- The Puppeteer Strikes**

It's been two weeks since his return from Suna and Naruto had hardly left his apartment in that time. Currently he was smiling at what he had created, ever since his return he had thrown himself into his puppeteer training. He had learned much in the short amount of time, he had managed to make many of the poisons that Sasori's scrolls mentioned, and his chakra control was through the roof even if he didn't have anything to compare it by, if any trained and experienced shinobi were to see it they would think he had been trained by Tsunade Senju herself! In his second week of training with the scrolls he had started on how to create your own puppet, and lying in front of him was the fruits of his labor.

Naruto had designed him in honor of the Anbu he had seen save him multiple times. It was tall, about six feet, it was dressed in the standard Anbu attire, black pants and sandals, and a black skin tight sleeveless shirt with a grey chest plate along with arm and leg bracers. Naruto had wanted honor the Anbu but put his own little twist in to the puppet, so Naruto had given it blonde spiky hair like his own and had chosen an Anbu style Fox mask for the puppet to wear. On its back were two ninjato's and it also had kunai holsters on both its thighs as well as two packs on its back hip. Since this was his first puppet, Naruto decided only to go with some basic traps in the body. From its right wrist it could fire a barrage of poisoned senbon, and in its left wrist were smoke grenades.

Attaching his chakra strings Naruto made the puppet stand up; the sight of his first successful puppet standing in front of him was so exciting for Naruto that he immediately ran to the show the old man. When he arrived the Hokage's first thought on seeing the Anbu figure, was Naruto had pulled another prank. But when Naruto showed him it was puppet, Sarutobi almost had a heart attack from the surprise. The puppet looked so life like that it had fooled a kage level shinobi; Sarutobi knew only a puppet master would be able to tell the difference from one glance. He was curious though, as to where Naruto had gotten the clothes for the puppet. He could tell they weren't the average shinobi store remake; they were official Anbu grade clothes and armor. Apparently, Naruto didn't think one heart attack for Sarutobi was enough because when he explained how he acquired them from Anbu headquarters, the old kage almost went into cardiac arrest.

It was a week later, on the eve of Naruto's birthday; Sarutobi got word of a group of thirty or more civilians heading towards the blondes apartment to apparently, 'finish what the fourth started.' So now the Hokage and about ten Anbu were standing on the roof of a building waiting for the crowd to show up. Ten minutes later when the crowd came into view the Anbu braced themselves to strike, only to be stopped by the Hokage. Surprised and slightly concerned, a dog masked Anbu approached the Hokage.

"Hokage-sama, aren't we going to stop those villagers from attacking Naruto?" asked the Anbu, worry clear in his voice.

"Not yet Dog, as you know Naruto has started training in the art of puppetry and I wish to see how far he has come. But if things don't go the way I think they will, we move to kill all the attackers, understood?" said the Hokage in a voice that left no room for argument.

"Yes Hokage-sama," Dog replied with nod. Even he didn't show it, he was still very worried about his sensei's son and a person he saw as his own little brother, and so if there was a chance Naruto would get hurt, he would be the first one there to protect him. But if what the Hokage said was right, Naruto would be fine physically, but Dog was worried how this would affect him mentally it he was required to kill at such a young age.

Naruto meanwhile was sitting next to his window and watching the village below him. When he first caught sight of the crowd of people heading towards his apartment, he smirked, _'Time to put Fox through his last test,' _he thought while connecting chakra strings to Fox and moving to hide in his closet. It wasn't two minutes later that he heard pounding on his door accompanied by the shouts of the villagers.

"Time to die demon!"

"It's time we finished what the Fourth started!"

The pounding on his door got harder until the door was kicked in and ripped off its hinges. The civilians looked around, not seeing their target they made their way to his bedroom only to find it empty as well. What they failed to notice though was Fox hidden in the shadows behind the door. When none were looking at him Fox pulled a kunai and began the slaughter.

Screams of terror could be heard coming from the apartment, concerned the Hokage signaled for the Anbu to move only to find Dog already moving to the apartment. Moving to the front door they were worried when it was broken off its hinges, moving towards the bedroom the group of shinobi was shocked to see Naruto standing with Fox by his side in middle of what could only be described as a blood bath. Bodies littered the floor soaking in pools of blood and entrails, even most experienced shinobi would have a hard time stomaching the sight in the room, but to their surprise Naruto was wearing his famous fox grin.

"That should get the message across, maybe now people will think twice before attacking me," said Naruto as he turned to look at the Hokage. "Hey old man, can I ask a favor?" Still shocked that a four year old could kill over thirty civilians, but relieved that said boy was unharmed Sarutobi turned to look at the blonde as he spoke.

"And what would that be, Naruto?" the aged kage asked.

"Can you have someone clean up the blood, but leave the bodies and organs?" Naruto asked with a serious face. Seeing the look on the blondes face Sarutobi knew this was important.

"Why just the blood and not the bodies or organs?" he asked although he had an idea because of what he heard about Sasori of the Red Sand. Knowing that he would have to explain at some point, Naruto decided to tell the Hokage about Human Puppets. Though he was slightly surprised by the blonde's knowledge on human puppets, Sarutobi had guessed that was the reason behind the unusual request. Contemplating on what to do, the Hokage decided to buy a little more time for his thought process to finish.

"Naruto come with me, we'll discuss this in my office. Anbu clean this mess up, seal the bodies and organs and bring them to my office when you're done," ordered the Hokage. With a chorus of 'Hai Hokage-sama' from everyone, even Naruto, the Anbu set to work while Naruto left with the Hokage and a dog masked Anbu, Fox at his side.

Ten minutes later found, Naruto sitting in front of the Hokage. Dog was standing by the door with Fox mimicking his actions. Sarutobi looked at Naruto, knowing that the decision he was about to make would forever change the young boy in front of him. And possibly reduce the village's population to triple digits if Naruto decided he wanted revenge. Glancing to Dog, the Hokage decided to begin with something simple.

"Naruto, first off I'd like to introduce you to someone you are very familiar with. You may recognize Dog as one of the Anbu that has watched over you in the past."

"Yeah I remember him, he was the only one of the Anbu watching me to ever come play with me," said Naruto as he smiled slightly at the memory of Dog giving him a piggy back ride while jumping across the roofs of buildings. Laughing nervously at the look the Hokage gave him, Dog stepped forward and removed his mask revealing another mask underneath; only this one covered everything from his nose down. He also had his left eye closed with a vertical scar running through it.

"Hello Naruto, my name is Kakashi Hatake. It's nice to finally meet you properly," said Kakashi with, what Naruto would soon learn, was his famous eye smile.

"It's nice to meet you too, Kakashi," said Naruto as he turned to face the newly revealed Anbu. Clearing his throat to bring the attention back to him, Hiruzen picked up from where he left off.

"Now that introductions have been taken care of, I have a few things I would like to say. First off Naruto, I will allow you to keep the bodies of the villagers to turn into puppets on the condition that you only turn those who attack you into puppets, I don't need you going around and killing people just make them puppets," said the Hokage as Naruto nodded in acceptance. "Also, as the Hokage I am giving you express permission to kill anyone who tries to attack you, what you do with the bodies afterwards is up to you," again nodding his agreement Naruto prepared to leave when a cat masked Anbu appeared and placed a scroll on the Hokage's desk. "It seems your apartment is cleaned Naruto, the bodies are in the scroll, you are free to go." Using a chakra string, Naruto grabbed the scroll and made his way out of the tower. After he arrived at his apartment, Naruto locked himself inside, not to seen by the village for years.

It was during the first two months that Naruto began trying to make human puppets, it took him a couple of tries to get the skill down and of the original 37 civilians that he had killed, 25 were puppets. Even though he knew how to make them Naruto knew he was far from mastering the art of making human puppets. He had not only worked on human puppets but he also managed to create two more regular ones. When he had shown them to Kakashi and Sarutobi, when they came by to visit every now and then, both of them were impressed and scared at the same time. Each of the puppets looked strong and intimidating on its own, but after Naruto told them that he made them to be used as a tandem; they resolved to never anger the blonde lest he attack with those two puppets.

The first one looked like a demon in human form, which was accurate somewhat as Naruto had based it on and named it after the Shinigami himself. Shinigami had sickly grey skin that Naruto said was a material he designed to make his puppets more lifelike, it had a spiky mane of white hair that reached its back; it was dressed in black jounin style pants and sleeveless shirt with a short sleeved black cloak with white flames licking the bottom. It had two horns jutting out from its forehead, piercing black eyes and razor sharp teeth in a segmented mouth that opened up and fire poisoned kunai, shuriken, or senbon at an opponent. On its back are six demonic wings that have hidden blades that extend out of them. On its right side it carries a ninjato with a white clothed hilt; it also has a tanto on its left side with a white clothed hilt as well. Its left arm had a white arm bracer and a hidden blade in the side of the arm. It could shoot poison gas out of its right elbow joint and it right hand was connected to the body by a chain that could be used to drag an opponent in for the kill.

The Brother puppet, which Naruto had named Kami, was very similar to its brother Shinigami. It had straight black hair tied in a ponytail that reached its back, its bright blue eyes shown with the same intensity as Naruto's own. It wore white jounin style pants and sleeveless shirt with a white cloak with black flames licking the bottom. On its back it had six angelic wings instead of demonic ones; these wings were loaded with poisoned senbon that could launch at an opponent with a simple flap of the wings. Like its brother, Kami had a ninjato only his was on the left side with a tanto on the right; each blade had a black clothed hilt. Its right arm had a black arm bracer and a hidden blade in the side of the arm. Its left elbow could be used to fire smoke grenades while its left wrist could fire senbon. These puppets were complete opposites of each other, but when Naruto used them together in a fight against Kakashi's and Sarutobi's clones they proved to be quite the team covering the others blind spots and launching one combo attack after another.

It was with these two puppets that Naruto managed to defeat four chuunin who were helping a crowd of twenty civilians to attack the 'demon brat.' Needless to say, Naruto added twenty new civilian puppets to his collection, but only three ninja puppets, he had lost one when he messed up the chakra network, but it would be safe to say that Naruto now had the art of making human puppets mastered after three months. Thanks to his three new chuunin puppets, Naruto learned the basics of fire, earth, and lightning jutsu and even some genjutsu.

Now one year later, Naruto stood atop his apartment building dressed in all black. Making his way across the roofs of the village, he made his way to his destination, the Hokage tower. Arriving at the tower, he watched as the patrols made their rounds, studying them for an opening. When the opening presented itself, he made his move. Entering though an open window, Naruto found himself inside the Hokage's office. Sneaking out of the office, he made his way towards the Hokage's personal library. Once he arrived he searched the room for anything of interest to him, he found multiple scrolls on every type of jutsu imaginable, from destructive ninjutsu, to terrifying genjutsu, to complex taijutsu, and almost impossible sealing. Smirking Naruto took out a bunch of blank scrolls, as well as some sealing scrolls.

Taking one of the blank scrolls, he removed one the larger, older looking scrolls and set it beside the blank one. Over the course of his training so far, Naruto had created a jutsu similar to the transformation, only you didn't transform yourself, you transformed something else. He had created this jutsu using some of the information he got from his three chuunin puppets about basic genjutsu and the transformation, unlike a genjutsu when this jutsu was applied it wasn't an illusion but a physical transformation. Running through the hand signs for the jutsu Naruto transformed the blank scroll into a copy of the large scroll, at least on the outside; he knew no one ever used the scroll in this room to train as they were all forbidden, so no one would be opening them anytime soon. Repeating the process with the reminder of the scrolls in the room, which took him a good three hours to from how many scrolls there were, he sealed away the originals into the storage scrolls and made his way out of the building the same way he came in.

Two years had passed after Naruto's adventure in the Hokage's forbidden library, and in that time Naruto had nearly mastered everything the scrolls had to teach him. How did he accomplish this? The answer is simple, Shadow Clones. Before he began his training with the scrolls, Naruto had read through them to see what he should start with. When he came across the Shadow Clone Jutsu and read about its secret ability, he set to work on mastering it. It was almost as if the jutsu was made specifically for him with how easily it came to him, but what he didn't expect when he first used the clones for training was the massive headache that came when he released the jutsu due to the rush of knowledge he received from his clones.

It was because this that Naruto had first met his tenant, Kyuubi no Kitsune. When he and the fox first met they couldn't stop arguing with each other and they couldn't get along to save their lives. But when Naruto had let slip about one of his secret projects, the Kyuubi or as he later introduced himself, Kurama offered to help him with it.

Naruto may have been a bit colder since his first kills, but he had a since of honor, and he felt he should do something for the fox if he was willing to help with his project. This brought about the idea of Naruto finding a way to summon the Kyuubi into the real world every now and then, when he told the fox his idea, he immediately threw the Fox Summoning contract at Naruto and almost begged him to sign it.

With the help of Kurama and his Shadow Clones, Naruto had managed to master everything the scrolls had to offer. Even if he didn't have anything to compare it to, Naruto felt his skills as a shinobi could rival that of a jounin's. His genjutsu was that of an average jounin, despite puppeteers usually having little to no close combat skills, Naruto's taijutsu was that of an elite jounin, his skills in sealing had gone through the roof. Like the Shadow Clone, the art of sealing almost seemed like second nature to him. Thanks to the scrolls the Fourth Hokage left behind on sealing, he was probably a master of the art. But the one thing he knew no one could ever match him at, was ninjutsu. His naturally large chakra reserves, even without the fox's chakra, made him a perfect match for ninjutsu, and with all the jutsu he had learned from the Hokage's scrolls he knew he could rival even the old man in that department.

It was near his seventh birthday that the Hokage had come to tell him that he would be starting at the academy soon.

Despite protests from the civilian council about having the 'demon' trained as a ninja and instead calling for his death using the basis of him killing innocent civilians and then turning them into abominations, the Hokage had reminded them that his law about the Kyuubi was still active and that he had given Naruto permission to defend himself. The shinobi council however was pleased to see that Naruto could defend himself, and were interested in his skills with the art of puppetry. This didn't sit well with the civilian council as they continued to go on and on about killing the 'demon.' It wasn't until after Sarutobi threatened them with public execution for treason did they stop ranting.

Excited that he could finally be a ninja, officially, he decided to go to the festival despite the Hokage's protests. That was how his collection of human puppets went from 48 to 81, even with Fox by his side throughout the whole time he was at the festival; people still had thoughts that they could attack him without consequences.

When he received the report of what occurred during the festival, the Hokage hoped that people learned not to mess with Naruto soon, or the village populace would drop dramatically in the coming years.

**There it is, let me know what you think. Also I still need ideas for more puppets and people you think should be turned into puppets.**

**BSW**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey people I'm back with a new chapter. Hope you like it.**

**gohan90- First thank you for clearing that up, it makes more sense now, and I put a little hint as to the possible pairing in this chapter, but don't worry her personality will be changed to fit Naruto's. As for Naruto's personal touches to Fox, even he didn't know he always acts like a fox, pranks, being a trickster, and we can't forget his foxy grin. As for the children they'll kinda act the same, with a few exceptions later on, because the council hasn't let it out that Naruto is killing people and turning them into puppets. Thank you for the puppet idea, since you were the first one to actually send me an idea, yours will appear in this story definitely. Thanks, and keep the reviews coming there really helping out.**

**FallenBleedingAngel- Thank you, and I'm glad your liking your first puppeteer Naruto story. As for the idea with the loyalty seal, I'll consider it but I probably wont use it. Since I was kinda going for Naruto being the classic example of a puppeteer, not making an changes to himself, only improving his skill with his puppets. As for your idea of seal for getting the Byakugan and Sharingan, there in this chapter, but with a twist as compared to most puppeteer Naruto stories. Enjoy, and keep the review coming!**

** Disclaimer-I don't own Naruto, if I did things would have been very different!  
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**Chapter 3- Academy Days**

Naruto now sat in his seat at the back of his classroom in the academy. He was the first one to arrive and was thinking over what he had learned recently. When the old man told him he would be starting the academy, Naruto had wanted as much information on who was in his class as possible.

_Flashback Back_

_It was a week after the Hokage had told Naruto about the academy, and currently he was shifting through files in the Hokage's office in the middle of the night. He was looking for the file that had information on the newest class starting the academy. Finally, after twenty minutes of searching he found what he was looking for. _

_Reading through the file Naruto instantly noticed that the Clan Heirs from all the shinobi clans were in his class. 'There the most likely to become true shinobi out of the class, besides me of course,' thought Naruto as he memorized the names in the file and put it back where he got it. Sneaking back out of the tower, Naruto created some Shadow Clones and sent them to observe his new classmates for a day and dispel once they were done._

_The next day Naruto went about his usual routine, get up at the crack of dawn, get ready for the day, and train for most of the day, and then work on his secret project with the help of Kurama. It was close to sundown when his first clone dispelled itself, this clone had observed a civilian council members son who was in his class and he could say for sure, that one wouldn't become a shinobi at all. The next clone to dispel had followed the daughter of the head of the civilian council, Sakura Haruno._

_Shifting through the information his clone had sent him, he could honestly say he wasn't impressed. From a shinobi stand point, she had almost no potential and nothing going in her favor. Her chakra levels were barely higher than that of an average civilian, but with training she would have almost perfect control over her tiny reserves, and could possibly become a medical ninja, if she wasn't an obsessed fan girl. The likely hood of that though was almost zero, as her mother, or as Naruto called her the Pink Banshee, was already filling her daughters head with dreams of marrying the youngest son of the Uchiha Clan Head, Sasuke Uchiha._

_Speaking of said Uchiha, the clone that had been following him dispelled and Naruto admitted that Sasuke would most definitely be the top of the class, if he decided to hide his true skills. From what he could tell, Sasuke had a little above average chakra reserves for their age and was already somewhat skilled in taijutsu, and currently learning a low level fire jutsu required among the clan. If what he could gather from his clone was anything to go by, Sasuke had somewhat of an inferiority complex due to his brother Itachi being the genius he was and having to live in his brothers shadow for most of his life._

_The next few clones to disperse tailed other children of wealthy civilians, most of which were on the council. The next noticeable people his clones tailed were the children of the Ino-Shika-Cho formation. The first one was Shikamaru Nara, like most Nara's he was lazy as can be, but Shikamaru seemed to be even lazier than most of his clansmen. Also like most Nara men, he was a genius, even by his clan's standards. His reserves were average, and he was already being trained in his clan's jutsu and style._

_Choji Akimichi was the next one he learned about. His reserves were average, but his physical strength and taijutsu were already well above average. Like most Akimichi's, Choji was fat, though he learned to never call him that, or suffer the same fate as some poor unfortunate boy who called Choji fat. _

_The last of the Ino-Shika-Cho children, was Ino Yamanaka. When Naruto went through the memories of the clone, he blushed slightly at Ino's natural beauty, even at their age. Ino was very similar to Sakura in the fact that she had very small chakra reserves, though hers were slightly higher than Sakura's. And she already had some form of training, from her father in the form of her clan jutsu._

_The next one was Shino Aburame, and it seemed he was the only one to notice he was being watched. Shino like most Aburame's, was very mysterious and preferred to keep to himself. It also seemed that he would become a very competent shinobi, quite, neutral and lethal. Also like most Aburame's he had average chakra reserves, and he seemed to be a natural tracker with his insects, which explains how his clone was found._

_Kiba Inuzuka also seemed to be a born tracker. Like most Inuzuka's he was partnered with a dog, his dogs name was Akamaru, and despite their age and experience, they were already proving to be a very effective combo. Kiba's chakra reserves were slightly above average like Sasuke's, but his taijutsu was like Choji's, through the roof for their age._

_When the next dispelled he was rather surprised by the information it sent back. The clone had tailed Hinata Hyuuga, the heiress of the Hyuuga clan. She seemed to have slightly above average chakra for a kunoichi in training, but was surprisingly shy and gentle for a Hyuuga. But what shocked him the most was the fact that a Hyuuga guard who had been watching over her, spotted the clone and informed a passing jounin that the 'demon brat' was about to kill innocents. Before the clone dispelled, it noticed that the jounin smirked and activated a fully matured Sharingan, while the Hyuuga guard activated his Byakugan and they sprinted in the direction of Naruto's apartment._

_Thinking quickly, Naruto unsealed Kami, Shinigami, Fox, and two of his jounin puppets and left to meet his assailants half way. He found them jumping across the roof tops in his direction, making sure Kami and Shinigami were concealed he changed direction and headed for an unused training ground, the Hyuuga and Uchiha on his tail._

_When he arrived at the training ground he braced himself for his hardest fight to date. He may have killed two jounin in the past, but they were drunk and could hardly fight back._

_When the two jounin entered the field they were slightly surprised to see that the 'demon' had two jounin and an Anbu standing with him ready to fight. Getting over their shock, they charged at him the Hyuuga moving in the use his Jyuuken, while the Uchiha went through hand signs for a jutsu._

_Jumping back to avoid the legendary Hyuuga taijutsu, Naruto twitched his fingers slightly and the jounin puppets flashed through hand signs before they both launched a fireball at the Hyuuga, only to have the attack canceled by the Uchiha and a clone. Cursing under his breath Naruto jumped into the trees for cover and allowed his puppeteer nature to show. _

_Fox drew his two katana's and charged forward faster than before with the jounin drawing kunai and following. Surprised by the sudden burst of speed from his opponents, the Hyuuga barely had time to use his Rotation to defend. _

'_So a main branch member of the Hyuuga, Hiashi won't be pleased with this,' thought Naruto as he moved Kami and Shinigami into position for the finishing blow. Just as the Hyuuga stopped the Rotation, Naruto noticed he slowed down in his spin and sent Shinigami to make use of the opening._

_The Hyuuga was about to stop his spin and continue the fight, only for Shinigami to come up behind him and stab him in the heart with his tanto. Shinigami caught the body before it fell to the ground and vanished into the trees where Naruto was. Creating a clone to apply the preservation seal, Naruto turned his mind back to the fight just in time to move Fox out of the way of an attack from the Uchiha that would have destroyed the puppet. _

_Now Naruto was serious, mess with him fine, mess with his puppets, your dead. Withdrawing Fox and his jounin puppets, Naruto sent Shinigami back in along with Kami and had them attack the Uchiha. Seeing the black clad puppet charge at him, the Uchiha sped through hand signs thinking that he couldn't lose with his Sharingan. Unfortunately in his arrogance, he didn't notice the white clad puppet coming up from behind him with his tanto drawn and ready to kill. Flipping the tanto so he was holding it in the reverse grip, Kami swung and stabbed his victim in the shoulder before he could finish his jutsu. Using the distraction his brother caused, Shinigami drew his own tanto and stabbed the injured man in the heart. _

_Coming out of his hiding spot, Naruto placed a preservation seal on the body and sealed it along with the Hyuuga and made his way back to his apartment to begin his work. These two would make very powerful puppets for him to use, and it gave him a chance to try an experiment he had been interested in for a while, but needed the appropriate circumstances to do it. Allowing one of his infamous fox smirks to grace his face, he sped up, eager to begin._

_Flashback Release_

He was brought out of his memories when he noticed the rest of the class had arrived and they were waiting for their sensei to show up. Taking this as an opportunity to try out the results of his experiment, Naruto cast a slight, if powerful, genjutsu on his eyes and activated his Byakugan. His eyes turned from their usual sapphire blue to pale lavender with veins bulging around the eyes.

When he examined the bodies of his most recent kills, Naruto had found the strand in each of their DNA that contained the traits for their unique kekkei genkai's. Naruto had asked Kurama if he could alter his DNA to except the foreign traits and make them his own. When the fox said he could, Naruto immediately took the DNA from his newest puppets and implanted them into his own. When the fox began the process he warned him that it would burn like hell in his eyes, but by the time he was done the results were well worth the pain.

Using his new 360 degrees of vision, Naruto looked through the walls and noticed that there were two chuunin heading in the direction of their classroom. The first one wore the standard chuunin vest along with the standard leaf shinobi attire, navy blue pants and shirt. He had brown hair that was pulled back into a spikey ponytail along with a scare running across the bridge of his nose. And his leaf head band tied to his forehead.

The second one wore the same attire as the first, but had straight shoulder length white hair and wore his head band like a bandana. When the two reached the door to the classroom, Naruto deactivated his Byakugan and looked to the front of the room, waiting for class to begin. When the door opened the class immediately quit talking and looked at the new arrivals.

"Good morning class, I'll be your instructor for the next five years. My name is Iruka Umino, and this is Mizuki, he will be assisting me throughout your time here. Now we'll begin with a short quiz on basic knowledge of village history, and the shinobi life style." With that Iruka and Mizuki passed out the exams to the new batch of students. When Mizuki gave Naruto his quiz he sent a sneer in his direction, that didn't go unnoticed by are favorite blonde. When Naruto looked at his exam he immediately noticed the genjutsu on it that showed questions that even a seasoned jounin would have trouble with. Releasing the genjutsu Naruto sighed, _'This is going to be a long five years,' _he thought as he began his quiz.

_3 years later_

"Alright class, today we are going to learn about the past Hokage's of our village and maybe some of the other village's former kages," said Iruka as he looked over the class to gauge their reactions. Many of the class looked interested, though there were exceptions.

Shikamaru for example was asleep with his head on the desk; Shino was still as neutral as ever not letting any emotion show. The three most obvious ones who looked like they didn't care though were, Sasuke, Sakura, and Ino. The aforementioned Uchiha because he was too busy brooding, no doubt thinking of ways to kill his brother. A few months prior, his brother Itachi had killed their entire clan, with the exception of him. When Sasuke asked why, his brother told him it was to test his power. Ever since that incident, Sasuke has been obsessed with killing his brother but still managed to maintain his place as best in the class.

The two girls, weren't interested because they were too busy fawning over the Uchiha to care. Ever since said boy turned into a dark emo, every girl in the class that wasn't already after him soon joined the chase.

Naruto for his part was very interested in this particular subject. Ever since he made his first human puppets, he had dreams of having the past kages as his puppets. He had spent a lot of time trying to find the damn crypt where the bodies were placed after death, but every one of his searches yielded no results.

Clearing his throat, Iruka began his lecture, "Now as all of you know, the Hidden Leaf Village has had four Hokage's since its creation, including our current Hokage the Third, Hiruzen Sarutobi. Now let's go over them in order, the First Hokage was named Hashirama Senju, the clan head and leader of the Senju clan one of the founding clans of our village. He was a very powerful shinobi that was known across the land for his unique Wood Style Jutsu. There are many speculations about the Firsts Wood Style abilities being a kekkei genkai among the Senju, however this theory has not been proven since no one since the first has been able to use the Wood Style so many believe it to have been unique to him alone. During his time the world was very unstable, so as a sign of friendship and a way to keep the peace between the dying race of samurai and the shinobi of the Senju, the First wore red samurai armor that was crafted for him by the samurai. To continue the peace between the samurai and the Village Hidden in the Leaves after it was formed, the Firsts younger brother, Tobirama Senju the Second Hokage, requested to have his own armor made for him by the same smith who forged his brothers only his armor was blue as a sign to represent his skills with water ninjutsu. Like the First and his Wood Style, the Second had a unique skill with Water Style that only he seemed to be able to use. His skills in water ninjutsu were so great that he could cast a Water Style jutsu even if there was no water source around." By now most of the class was in stunned silence, they knew that the past kages were powerful, but they didn't think they were that powerful. Naruto for his part was memorizing every word Iruka said, he couldn't wait to find the crypt of the Hokage's and make then into his puppets. _**'Hey kit, I found something you might find very interesting,' **_came the voice of Kurama from inside Naruto's head. _'What is it Kurama, I'm a little busy here.' _Answered Naruto annoyed that the fox interrupted his memorizing the abilities of the Hokage's.

'_**Sheesh, someone's in a bad mood. Anyway what I was going to say is that when I was first sealed into you, I tried multiple times to try and possess you by flooding my chakra through you. While the seal stopped a majority of my chakra from leaking into you, it couldn't stop it all, but whatever chakra got past the seal was stopped and suppressed by columns of wood that would appear. What I'm trying to say is that you possess that legendary Wood Style of the First, and possibly the water control of the Second. If that's true then they might be ancestors of yours,' **_finished the fox as Naruto was shocked that he might be a descendent of the First and Second Hokage's, he would have to check when he got a hold of their bodies. Returning his attention to the lecture, Naruto caught the last part about the Second wielding a legendary sword known as the Raijin, the Sword of the Thunder God.

"Now unto the Third Hokage, as I said before he is our current Hokage due to his predecessor, the Fourth dying in battle against the Kyuubi. The Third Hokage was known as 'The Professor' or 'The God of Shinobi' for his skills and knowledge of the ninja arts. He was famous for using a diamond hard boa staff in combat that was said to be able to defeat any sword. He is also famous for training the legendary Sannin of the leaf village, Jiraiya the Toad Sage, Tsunade the Slug Princess, and the now traitor and rouge ninja, Orochimaru the Snake Sannin. Now the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, was said to be the greatest of the Hokage. He was trained by Jiraiya, and was even better at the art of sealing then even Jiraiya who is a seal master. But what made him truly famous and earned the title, The Yellow Flash of the Leaf and made him the only man in history to receive the flee on sight order from every village, was his Hiraishin no Jutsu. The Hiraishin allowed the Fourth to move at extreme speeds that were unmatchable and it is with this technique that the Fourth managed to kill over five hundred rock shinobi in a matter a minutes during the third shinobi war."

When Iruka finished his lecture about the Hokage's, the reactions around the class varied. Shikamaru who had woken up in the middle was wide eyed, while his best friend Choji was stunned with a chip only inches from his jaw. The stoic Shino had his eyebrows raised in surprise. Kiba was slack jawed and his puppy Akamaru was trying and failing to bring his partner out of his funk. Hinata was poking her fingers together while glancing at Naruto, but she was still wide eyed at the power of the Hokage's. Ino and Sakura who had stopped fawning over Sasuke for a few minutes were bugged eyed and slack jawed at what their sensei said. Outwardly Sasuke didn't acknowledge what Iruka said, but on the inside he was surprised, _'That power should be mine, I'm an Uchiha Elite I deserve that power.' _

While all this was going on, Naruto cast a quick genjutsu over everyone in the class and created over a hundred shadow clones and sent them to search for the crypt but not to be spotted. After his clones were gone he released the genjutsu and class continued on with Iruka talking about some of the past kages from other villages. The first one he talked about was Muu, the Second Tsuchikage who was known as 'The Invisible Man,' because he could eliminate his presence completely and suppress his chakra to the point of being nonexistent, even when he was using it. Another one he talked about was the Third Raikage, who was known for his durability and endurance, this gave his body the title of 'the strongest shield' and he was also known for using the Black Lightning technique and creating a jutsu that became known as 'the strongest sword,' the Hell-bringer Hand. Another of the kages that Iruka spoke of was the Third Kazekage, who was famous for his Iron Sand technique, but he vanished from his village suddenly and his body never found. The last one he talked about was the Second Mizukage, who was renowned and feared for his genjutsu abilities.

"Alright class, that's all for today. Remember there will be a test over the kages tomorrow so make sure you stu..." Iruka never got to finish as the class was already gone. Sighing to himself and mumbling something about kids and no patience, he set to work grading the rest of the test his class took a few days ago.

_A week later_

'_Finally, village security may have become lax in the previous years, but when the First chose the final resting place for the Hokage's he sure as hell didn't lax in the location.' _These were the thoughts of Naruto as he made his way toward the hidden crypt of the Hokage's in the dead of night. Unlike most would figure, the crypt wasn't even in the village, no the First had used his unique skills to control wood and created a hidden chamber deep within the forest that surrounded the village. From what his clone had found, the entrance to the crypt was hidden within an average tree that was marked with the leaf insignia.

After searching for a few minutes, he found the tree with the leaf marking. Activating his fully matured Sharingan, he looked over the tree noticing all the security seals drawn on it and hidden by an extremely powerful genjutsu. Taking out a brush and ink he began applying the counter seals which would disappear once he focused chakra into them. When the security seals deactivated, an opening appeared in the tree that revealed a winding staircase leading down into the earth. When he reached the bottom of the steps, Naruto found the caskets of the Hokage's, each marked with a kanji that represented who they were, First, Second, Fourth.

Moving over to the caskets, he removed the lids revealing the bodies of the kages, each with powerful preservation seals on them. Removing a scroll from his pouch, Naruto quickly drew three storage seals and sealed each kage into one, bowing and paying his respects as he did so. Once he finished he replaced the lids and made his way out the crypt and out the tree entrance, sending chakra into his counter seals to destroy them as he went, and to erase any sign of anyone ever being there.

The next day Naruto wiped the sweet from his brow, he had done it, the previous Hokage's were now his puppets. As excited as he was to begin training in the jutsu and skills he got from them, which seemed almost endless especially the Fourth, he looked at his creations with a sort of reverence would a god. The First, Second and Fourth Hokage's stood before Naruto in all their glory, but that wasn't what made Naruto hold them in such reverence. No it was the discovery that he was indeed a descendent of the First and Second Hokage's. The First was his great-great-great grandfather and the Second his great-great-great granduncle, on his moms side. Speaking of his parents, the thing that shocked him the most was the fact that he discovered he was the son of the Fourth Hokage. The man he admired above all others was his father, he swore then and there that he would make his father proud of him, even if he had defiled his body and turned it into a puppet.

From heaven, Minato Namikaze looked down at his son with a warm, proud smile on his face.

"Heh, you show them Naruto, become the legend you were meant to be and make good use of my body son. I will always be watching over you in spirit and now in body. I am proud of you my son, and I always will be," said Minato as he continued to watch over his son with the First and Second Hokage's now by his side.

"He will become strong, even without the use of his puppets, he will become a legend to surpass all legends." These were the words of Hashirama Senju as looked upon his one true heir.

"That he will brother, that he will," said Tobirama as nodded his head in agreement.

"**THERE YOU ARE! YOU SLIPPERY LITTLE BASTARDS I WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR ESCAPING AGAIN!" **screamed the Shinigami as he raced towards the three kages.

"Ah shit he found us! Scatter!" screamed Minato as the kages made a break for anime tears running down there faces as the Shinigami tried to catch the three spirits that always seemed to escape his stomach.

**There it is, hope you liked it. REVIEW PLEASE!**

**I need ideas for team placements, if you could send me some ideas I'd appreciate it!  
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**Also, as always I'm still accepting puppet ideas but I will make things interesting. The next five ideas that I get, will definitely be used in the story, and you are allowed to send in more then one if you like. See ya!**

**BSW**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey everybody I'm back with a new chapter, its a little earlier then normal, so I hope you enjoy. Also, I'm considering starting another story with one of the ideas that's on my profile. I'll start a poll to see if I should start a new story, vote and let me know!**

**crystal Coronello: thanks for the idea I was actually considering that for later on**

**Slifer1988: Kushina is not alive in this fic, and the reason that her body wasn't with Minato's was because the crypt was for the kages only. If you'll notice Mito wasn't buried with Hashirama**

**R-Rated: you'll be happy to know that the pairing is the one you wanted it to be. As for the hint, I'm honestly surprised people couldn't tell what the hint was. I mean come on, Hinata ALWAYS blushes when she looks at Naruto and she's always doing that thing with her fingers**

**gohan90: ok, first when Naruto went to the festival he didn't kill those civilians it was Fox and by that time, Naruto had mastered Fox so he only needed one or two fingers to control him, and all he'd have to do is twitch his fingers and Fox would attack, making it look like his Anbu guard was just doing his job. second, yes Sakura and the others are children of the civilian council, but even there not stupid enough to talk about Kurama and piss off the hokage, so they did the next best thing telling them to stay away from him. third, okay I might have worded it weirdly, but generally just meant main house member. as for you saying that the only people in the main house are the current head and his family, your wrong. you forgot about the Hyuuga council, and their families, their are a part of the main house in my story. yeah the last part was for comedy relief more for me, from the stress of getting chapter the way i wanted it to go, as for only the fourth being in Shinigami's stomach, just role with it  
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**Chapter 4- Team 7 **

_2 years later_

Naruto set in his usual seat in the back of the class, waiting for his sensei to call him for his graduation exam. Over the years Naruto hadn't changed that much physically, other than gaining some more muscle form his training. Naruto now stood even with Sasuke in height; he had on black baggy shinobi pants with multiple pockets for scrolls and weapons. He had a blood red sleeveless shirt on and he wore a cloak similar to his fathers. The difference being his cloak was blood red like his shirt and had black flames licking the bottom of the cloak, along with a symbol in the middle of the cloak. Naruto had designed the symbol himself, it consisted of nine black tomoes arranged in a circle around the kanji for 'Fox.' It was his symbol, his mark as a puppeteer.

They had just finished the written portion of the exam, and Naruto was barely holding in his annoyance. _'Those damn bastards on the civilian council, who do they think they are poking their noses in shinobi affairs. I mean seriously, over half of our score on the graduation exam is a WRITTEN EXAM! My father would weep if he could see the level his village has fallen to,' _thought Naruto in disgust. He was brought out of his thoughts by his sensei.

"Naruto Uzumaki, your next," came the voice of Iruka. Naruto made his way into the exam room and noticed that Iruka and Mizuki were sitting behind a desk with a few leaf headbands still on the table. "Ok Naruto, your final exam consists of the Transformation, Substitution and Clone Jutsu's. First show us a transformation," said Iruka. The next thing either chuunin knew was they were staring into the face of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. _'He didn't even use a hand sign, and that transformation is flawless,' _thought Iruka as Naruto undid the jutsu. "Ok Naruto, now show us a substitution." Nodding his head, Naruto smirked as he jumped in the air and substituted himself with Mizuki. The end result was Mizuki falling flat on his face with Naruto falling of his new chair laughing, next to him Iruka wasn't fairing any better. Mizuki scowled at Naruto who was still chuckling as he walked back to his spot in front of his sensei's. "Alright Naruto, now the last thing you need to do is create three clones."

"Sensei, does it matter what kind of clone?" asked Naruto, surprising Iruka once again. _'He knows another type of clone jutsu?' _was the thought that ran through Iruka's head.

"No it doesn't matter, let's see what you got Naruto," said Iruka. Nodding his head again, Naruto formed a shadow clone, a water clone, a lightning clone, and a wind clone and fire clone all without hand signs. His two sensei's were left gaping like fish out of water, over the years Naruto had received average or a little above average grades in all aspects of his training. Shaking off his shock, Iruka gave Naruto a proud look. "Congratulation Naruto, you pass with flying colors," said Iruka as he handed Naruto a headband. Taking the headband, Naruto tied it securely around his forehead and walked out of the room with his head held high.

'_Damn the brat passed, so much for using him to steal the scroll for me,' _thought Mizuki bitterly, as watched Naruto leave the testing room. It was a little while after that Iruka stood in front of the class looking proudly around at everyone that graduated.

"Congratulations to everyone who graduated, for those who didn't better luck next year. Now all you should be here in a week to receive your team placements as well as your jounin sensei's. Until then, enjoy your time to rest, because once you start your time as full-fledged shinobi you won't have much time to rest," said Iruka as he watched the class leave to tell their parents of their success.

'_A week off huh, might as well test out my kage puppets in that time, cause afterward I won't have any other chance with all the missions I'll have to do,' _thought Naruto as he made his way to his apartment building. Once he was inside his apartment, he decided to work on his secret project for the rest of the day and go test the kages out on some bandit camps he got word of.

It was well into the night, that Naruto finally emerged from his apartment/lab and made his way out of the village avoiding detection from the Anbu and making his way to the first of the bandit camps he knew of. When he arrived he unsealed the First and attached his chakra strings to him bringing him to life. With a flick of his wrist, Hashirama charged into the bandit camp going through hand seals as he went. When he reached the middle of the camp Naruto made his move.

"Wood Style: Dense Forest Creation," said Naruto. Suddenly the camp was in chaos as tents were destroyed by trees and bandits were killed by roots and branches. Not wanting to leave anyone alive to spread word of the attack, Naruto walked into the camp with Hashirama at his side. Walking through the camp proved just how strong the First was, hardly any of the bandits were left alive and the ones that were had crippling and maiming injuries. Once he was sure no one was left alive, he sealed the First back into the sealing tattoo on his left arm with the kanji for 'One' on it. Moving to the next bandit camp only helped to prove the power of a kage as Tobirama destroyed his camp with a tidal wave and whirlpool combination. Minato proved a little challenging with his speed, but after a few attempts and personally killing five bandits that saw him, he was able to get the hang of the Fourth's speed.

Now that he had tested his kage puppets, Naruto wanted to test himself. Heading to the last bandit camp he knew of, Naruto prepared himself for an all-out fight. Once he arrived he didn't waste any time and charged straight into the camp. The first few bandits he ran into ended up with snap necks and shattered spines from his strong taijutsu strikes. This camp seemed to be more organized then the others because not a minute after he took out the first couple of bandits, did he have over twenty others charging him weapons ready to kill. _'Time to test a few things I got from that Hyuuga,' _thought Naruto activating his Byakugan. Once the bandits were in range to kill him, he made his move. Pushing chakra out of all of his chakra points, Naruto spun on his foot.

"Rotation!" he said as the bandits that tried to attack him were blown away. Taking advantage of their current state, Naruto took out a shuriken and threw it while forming hand signs. "Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu." The one shuriken became a hundred, and the bandits didn't stand a chance. Moving deeper into the camp, Naruto decided to try some of his newest ninjutsu. Forming hand signs, Naruto decided to honor his ancestors, "Wood Style: Leaf Shuriken Jutsu." Instantly the leafs from the trees surrounding the camp, shot from their places and started slicing and killing any and all bandits in their path. Going through some more hand signs, Naruto prepared one of his favorite jutsu from his granduncle, "Water Style: Tidal Surge Jutsu." A giant wave of water came out of nowhere and crashed into the camp drowning almost half the camp in the process. _'This one's for you dad,' _thought Naruto as he prepared one of his father's most prized techniques. Gathering chakra into his right hand, Naruto formed the ultimate jutsu of shape manipulation. Forming a few shadow clones each with the exact same jutsu in hand, each jumping towards one of the few surviving bandits, Naruto slammed the jutsu into the bandits gut muttering one of the most powerful words a shinobi can, "Rasengan."

Once he was sure no bandits were left alive, he started making his way towards the leaf village for some well-deserved sleep.

For the next week, Naruto spent most of his time in his apartment working on his project and sending shadow clones to continue working on his jutsu from the kages. By the end of the week he had mastered most of his granduncles jutsu as well as his grandfathers. His father's jutsu though, he had hardly scratched a percentage of all the jutsu his father knew. And even though he hasn't told anyone about his project, other than Kurama, he should have it ready by the time the Chuunin Exams came around.

He also managed to create another regular puppet during his week off; this one unlike his others was a defensive type of puppet. It had the build of a bodybuilder and wore a dark brown sleeveless shirt and matching pants. On its elbow joints were circular shields that retracted into themselves and could withstand almost any attack. It had similar shields on its knee caps and a larger one on its back. Naruto designed this puppet to be able to withstand any attack and provide shelter in the middle of enemy territory if necessary.

We find Naruto once again sitting in the back of his class for the last time waiting for his team assignment. The class was all doing their usual thing when their sensei's weren't there. Kiba was talking to Akamaru; Shino was sitting silently waiting for their sensei's arrival. Hinata was poking her fingers together in nervousness while glancing at Naruto from the corner of her eyes; Shikamaru was asleep and Choji was swallowing bag after bag of chips. The emo was brooding while starring out at a tree like it would internally combust if he starred long enough. The bastards fan girls were doing what all fan girls do, annoy the hell out of you and squeal with the ideas going through their heads. Naruto was doing his best to keep calm though on the inside he was close to sending Kami and Shinigami to deal with the curse called fan girls.

While all this was going on, the Hokage and all the jounin were in the council chambers deciding on who would be taking what teams.

"Now that teams 1 to 6 have been decided on, team 7 which consist of Naruto Uzumaki, Kiba Inuzuka, and Ino Yamanaka, which jounin would like to have them for their team?" asked the Hokage as he looked out at the crowd of jounin.

"Lord Hokage, I would like to take them under my wing," said Kakashi as he stepped forward, for once not reading his little orange book. The Hokage smiled at Kakashi and was about to grant him his request until a pick-haired banshee interrupted him.

"No, Kakashi you will take Lord Uchiha's and my daughter's team. He will need you to help train him in how to use his Sharingan," said Sayuki Haruno, Sakura's mother, as if it she couldn't be denied.

"No," was all she received from the masked jounin.

"Excuse me?" said a shocked Sayuki; it appears she wasn't expecting to be denied.

"No, I will not train that arrogant emo prick or your banshee of a daughter neither has the skill, nor the attitude to be my students," said Kakashi as he glared at the council woman.

"But Lord Uchiha will need you to train him in how to use his Sharingan!" shouted a random civilian council member.

"He can learn how to use it by himself, that's what I did," said Kakashi as he turned back to his leader.

"I agree Kakashi; you will take young Naruto, Ino and Kiba as your team. As for you civilians, you have no say in the dealings of shinobi and as such do not need to be here for this meeting. The only reason you are here is because many of your children are in this class, so I will allow you to stay and listen in, but if any of you try anything you will be escorted out by the Anbu," said the Hokage in a tone that brokered no argument. "Now moving on to team 8, this consists of Hinata Hyuuga, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi. Who would like to take on this team?"

"I will take them as my team, Lord Hokage," said Kurenai as she stepped forward and took her new teams profiles.

"Now that just leaves team 10, the e… I mean Sasuke Uchiha, Shino Aburame and the bans… I mean Sakura Haruno. I'm sorry Asuma, but you're the only jounin sensei left so you will have to take this team," said the Hokage to youngest son with a look of complete understanding and sorrow in his eyes.

"Don't worry about it pops, they'll either follow orders or I'll drop them from the program," said Asuma. The civilian council was about to erupt into protest until the Hokage signaled for the Anbu in the room to show themselves. Needless to the civilians kept their mouths shut.

"I believe that is everything you needed Iruka, you may go give the team assignments," said the Hokage as he looked over at the scarred chuunin who wrote something down on his clipboard then shunshin'd to the academy. Upon arriving, Iruka noticed almost of the girls in class arguing over who would sit beside their _'precious Sasuke.' _Sighing at the behavior of the kunoichi in training, Iruka tried to get the classes attention, only to be met with more arguing. Getting annoyed he used his Big Head Jutsu.

"EVERYBODY SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN NOW!" screamed the annoyed chuunin. Everyone who wasn't already sitting down scrambled to get to seat before their sensei got any angrier. "Now that I have your attention, I will announce your new team placements and who your new sensei's are. Team 1 is… Team 7 is Naruto Uzumaki, Kiba Inuzuka and Ino Yamanaka, your sensei is Kakashi Hatake." Before could continue he was interrupted by one of his students.

"Iruka-sensei why am I on a team with the mutt and the dobe? I should be with Sasuke-kun!" screamed Ino as she started mumbling about things being unfair.

"Moving on," said Iruka ignoring the blonde girl, "Team 8 will be Hinata Hyuuga, Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi, your sensei is Kurenai Yuuhi. Team 9 is still in circulation so Team 10 will be Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and Shino Aburame, your sensei will be Asuma Sarutobi." At that point Ino started banging her head on the desk while Sakura pumped her first into the air screaming.

"Take that Ino-pig, true love conquers all!"

"Now that you know who your team mates and jounin sensei are, I wish all of you luck as you continue your career as shinobi of the leaf," said Iruka before he walked out. Most of the new teams moved to sit together and get to know each other better.

"Hey Naruto, you want to grab Ino and eat before our sensei shows up?" asked Kiba as he walked up to the blonde.

"Sure, besides I know our sensei and he is always two hours late for ever…" Naruto got to finish cause at that moment the door opened to reveal none other than the famed copycat himself.

"Team 7 meet me on the roof," but before Kakashi could react he had a kunai to his throat.

"Who are you, and what have you done with Kakashi-sensei?" asked our favorite blonde in a murderous tone. Most of the class was shocked at the display, Naruto who the bastard and his fan girls called a dobe cause he beat Sasuke in a spar once, had moved behind his new sensei and put a kunai to his throat before anyone could blink. His new team mates were just as shocked as everyone else, _'Damn, when did Naruto get so fast? I couldn't even smell a trail, it's almost like he went from one place to another instantaneously! I got to ask him how he got so fast,' _thought Kiba as he continued trying to find a scent trail. Ino was doing little better as her jaw was on the desk in front of her, _'Holy shit, maybe I underestimated Naruto, he's fast. I'm glad he's own my team though.' _Kakashi however didn't miss a beat.

"I am Kakashi; I decided to show up on time whenever it involves my team and you specifically. If you want another reason why, then it's out of fear of you using those brothers of yours to try and get payback." Now the class was even more shocked, not only had Naruto gotten the drop on a jounin, but his sensei was also afraid of having something of Naruto's used against him. _'What could the dobe have that could make even a jounin fear him?' _was the collective thought going through the heads of many of the genin.

"Oh it is you; sorry about that sensei but you can never be too careful," said Naruto as he put his kunai away and stepped in front of his sensei as Kiba and Ino finally got over their shock and moved to stand beside the blonde.

"No harm done, meet me on the roof in five," with that Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke. Grabbing his team mates shoulders before they could move and shunshin'd them up to the roof in a swirl of leaves, once again leaving behind a shocked class. When they all arrived on the roof of the academy, Kakashi motioned for them to take seat in front of him.

"Now why don't we start off by introducing ourselves, I'll go first. My name is Kakashi Hatake, I like a lot of things and I dislike a few things. My hobbies you're not old enough to know and my dream for the future, meh." Two of the new genin were thinking the same thing, _'all we learned was his name!' _"Alright how about you with the dog, you next," said Kakashi gesturing towards Kiba.

"My name is Kiba Inuzuka, and this is my partner Akamaru. I like most animals and walking Akamaru, I dislike fan girls and cats. My hobbies are training in my clan style and playing with Akamaru, my dream for the future is to become the head of my clan." Akamaru added in his part in the form of a few barks.

"Alright next, the dumb blonde," said Kakashi pointing at Ino.

"My name is Ino Yamanaka, and I'm not dumb. My likes are Sasuke-kun and flowers, I dislike Forehead girl and people who destroy flowers. My hobbies are watching Sasuke-kun and gardening, and my dream for the future," at this point she blushes crimson and squeals. _'Great a fan girl, well I'll have to break her of that before Naruto or Kiba kill her,' _thought Kakashi as he watched his two male students holding their ears in pain.

"And lastly, are other blonde."

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki; my likes are my true friends, my puppets, my parents and ancestors, and training. I dislike fan girls, the emo bastard, and those who can't tell the difference between a kunai and the scroll its sealed in. My hobbies include creating new puppets and training, my dream for the future is to become a shinobi my parents and ancestors would be proud of. And before you dismiss us sensei, I would think it would best if I told them about _that._" Understanding what Naruto meant, Kakashi decided to allow it. _'This can serve as their test, if the other two can't accept Naruto for who he is or they see him as the Kyuubi, they won't be worth training.' _

Kiba and Ino were curious, what could Naruto have to tell them that could be so important. They didn't have to wait long as Naruto began his explanation.

"What do you two know about the Kyuubi attack twelve years ago?" asked Naruto with his eyes closed.

"The Fourth killed it at the cost of his life," said Ino even more confused. It didn't help when Naruto started chuckling at her answer.

"That's a lie; no one not even the Fourth can kill a bijuu. But the Fourth did the next best thing, he sealed it. However he couldn't seal it into an object, the Kyuubi would just break out, and he couldn't seal it into an adult since there chakra coils are already developed and the Kyuubi would have destroyed them from the inside out and escaped. The only thing the Fourth could do was seal it inside of a new born child, that child is me." When Naruto opened his eyes to see their reactions he was tackled into a hug by Ino.

"Oh Naruto, you must have lived a hard life with a burden like that. Now I understand why all the villagers tell their children to stay away from you, but you're not the Kyuubi, your its jailor, the one who keeps the Kyuubi at bay," sobbed Ino as she just latched onto Naruto harder.

"So that explains why you always smelled like a fox. Don't worry Naruto, I'll make sure anyone who tries to harm you because of the Kyuubi pays dearly," growled Kiba as he held his hand out to Naruto. Taking the hand, the two gave one another a nod as a feeling of brotherhood overcame the two.

While all this was going on, Kakashi couldn't help but smile at the scene before. His little brother had just found two more people that cared for him, _'As far as I'm concerned they already pass the test, I'll spar with each of them to see what I have to work with.' _

"Alright, now that you two know about Naruto's secret, meet me at training ground seven tomorrow morning at six. I still need to determine what your skills are now. See ya." With that he disappeared in a swirl of leaves to prepare for tomorrow.

"Hey, do you two want to come to my apartment? I think getting know each other better and knowing what each others skills are will make us a more efficient team," said Naruto as he stood up with Ino, who was wiping her tears away.

"Yeah I'm in," said Kiba as Akamaru yipped his agreement.

"Count me in," said Ino, as the three of them made their way to Naruto's apartment.

Once they arrived, Kiba and Ino were surprised to find the lace relatively clean. Leading them over to the living area, Naruto gestured to the chairs around his small coffee table while he set on the couch.

"Ok, first I'll tell you guys what I know about Kakashi-sensei. From what I know he is a ninjutsu specialist by nature, but is also quite skilled at tracking and taijutsu. I don't know much about his genjutsu, other than he prefers to not use it," said Naruto as his team mates nodded their heads every now and then. "Ino, what about you?"

"Ummm, I know the basics of my clans jutsu and I can use the first one. Ummm, I know the academy taijutsu and no genjutsu," said Ino as the two boys looked at her incredulously. "What?"

"That's it, Ino do you ever train outside of the academy?" asked Naruto.

"No, not really," was the reply he got.

"Ino, I'm not going to sugar coat it for you but, you suck," said Naruto in a deadpan. Ino was about to shout at him, but he cut her off, "Listen Ino, what do you do instead of training, when you're at home?"

"Watch my figure with a diet and make sure I look beautiful so I can win over Sasuke-kun of course," she answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Sighing, Naruto knew he had to break her of that now or she would end up getting herself killed in the future.

"Ino, you're a ninja, you don't need to be on a diet cause as ninja's we burn way more calories than we normally would, your only hindering yourself if you stay on a diet. Now Ino, I want you to tell me has the bastard ever actually given you or any of the other fan girls the time of day?" Naruto asked he and Kiba looked to Ino for her response.

She was about to shout that of course he does, until she stopped and actually thought about it. None of her attempts at asking Sasuke out have worked and whenever she tried to start a conversation with him he always ignored her.

"No, I guess he hasn't," said Ino a little depressed.

"Ino the only thing that emo prick thinks about is how can he avenge his clan and get more power," said Kiba as Akamaru walked up to Ino and hopped into her lap trying to cheer her up. Smiling at the dog, Ino petted him and turned to her team mates.

"I guess you're right, he doesn't care about anything else other than power. Ugh I can't believe I wasted my time chasing after him," shouted Ino as she tried to understand why she went after him.

"It's ok Ino, at least now you see the error of your ways and you can focus on your ninja career now," said Kiba as he gave Ino as thumbs up.

"Alright Kiba, what are your skills?" asked Naruto as he thought of a way to help Ino improve.

"I'm good at taijutsu and close range combat; I can use a few of my clans jutsu. Most of the jutsu I know revolve around Akamaru and I working as a team, and I have no genjutsu," said Kiba as Akamaru jumped back over to him and crawled into his jacket.

"Hmmm, alright now for my skills. I am fairly good at genjutsu, as well as taijutsu but my ninjutsu is through the roof. I am quite proficient in the art of sealing, and like me ninjutsu, my skills with my puppets are through the roof. Earlier today when Kakashi-sensei said he would be on time for team meetings for fear of my using my brothers on him, he was referring to my two strongest regular puppets. I can create what is called a human puppet, which is a puppet made from a human corpse, and before you freak out, no I have not gone around killing people just to make them puppets, I only turn those who attack me into puppets," explained Naruto when he saw Ino about to freak and Kiba go wide eyed. Letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding, Ino asked the question both she and Kiba were thinking.

"Could you show us one of your human puppets?" Nodding his head, Naruto removed a scroll from his pack and opened in on the table, unsealing one of his shinobi puppets. Attaching his chakra strings the puppet came to life standing before the three of them. "Whoa, so how many puppets do you have in total?"

"Hmm, I'd say around a hundred or so," said Naruto after thinking it over for a few minutes.

"Alright, well I got to get going before my mom kills me for staying out too late. I'll catch you guys tomorrow for training, see ya." Called Kiba as he and Akamaru left in the direction of the Inuzuka compound.

"Would you like me to walk you home, Ino?" asked Naruto as he resealed his puppet.

"Yeah, I'd like that Naruto," said Ino as she and Naruto left his apartment and made their way down the villages streets. They walked in a comfortable silence until they stopped in front of the Yamanaka Flower Shop. "I'll see you tomorrow Naruto-kun," said Ino as she waved bye to her team mate and went inside. It wasn't until she closed the door, that either of them realized what she said. Naruto despite his tough, dark exterior blushed crimson when he realize what she called him, he began walking back to his apartment a true smile gracing his face for the first time in years. At the same time Ino was fighting down a full body blush as she walked to her room hoping to avoid her parents. Unfortunately her hopes were shattered when she heard her mother's voice.

"Ino honey, dinners ready." Fighting down the blush as best she could, she walked into the dining room and took her seat across from her father. "How was your last day of the academy sweetie?" her mother asked after she placed the rest of dinner on the table.

"It was good, we met our teams and jounin sensei's today," said Ino as she placed a piece of chicken on her plate.

"Princess, I thought you were on another one of those diets of yours?" asked Inoichi as he allowed his hopes to raise slightly that his daughter was finally seeing the error of her ways.

"I was, until one of my team mates helped me realize that as ninja we burn more calories than non-shinobi people," said Ino as she started digging into her dinner with gusto. _'THANK YOU KAMI! MY DAUGHTER IS FINALLY GOING TO TAKE HER LIFE AS KUNOICHI SERIOUS! FORGET MY RULE OF NO BOYS ALLOWED, IF A BOY GOT HER TO REALIZE THIS I'LL GLADLY LET HIM DATE MY DAUGHTER!' _screamed chibi Inoichi as he danced around in his head, while on the outside he just smiled at his daughter.

"So tell me princess, who's on your team?" asked Inoichi, _'Not that I don't already know.' _

"Oh I have Naruto Uzumaki and Kiba Inuzuka on my team. Naruto-kun was the one who got me to realize that I wasn't taking my career seriously," said Ino not realizing she added the kun to Naruto's name again. And that was big mistake.

"Naruto-_kun, _when did this happen sweetie? I thought you were after that Uchiha?" asked her mother with a glint in her eyes that promised endless teasing.

"Well… Naruto-kun made me realize that all my attempts to ask Sasuke out haven't worked. And both he and Kiba opened my eyes to what he really is, a self-centered power hungry bastard who only thinks for himself and no one else," said Ino with surprising venom in her voice.

"Well why don't you invite Naruto over sometime, I would like to meet him in person." Both Ino and her mother whirled around to face Inoichi, who had a piece of chicken in his mouth. "What?" he asked with the chicken sticking out of his mouth.

"Who are you and what have you done with my dad/husband!" screamed both Yamanaka women.

"Uhhh, I'm me, nothing's happened," said a thoroughly confused Inoichi.

"You never want me to bring home any guys I meet, unless it's to scare them off. Why do you want to meet Naruto so badly?" asked Ino as she tried to understand what her father was up to.

"Ino, has Naruto told you his secret?" asked Inoichi with a serious face.

"Yes he has, he told both Kiba and I after we met our sensei. I understand the burden he's had to bare and I accept him for him." Inoichi and his wife were surprised with the fire that burned in their daughters eyes when she talked about her fellow blonde. Both parents smiled knowing that they would be getting to know Naruto Uzumaki very well in the coming years.

"Heh, your son has more luck with the ladies then any of us ever did," said Hashirama as he and his fellow kages watched their legacy down on earth.

"Yeah the lucky bastard, I bet that perverted sensei of mine will have a field day trying to get research for his books off of him," laughed Minato as he looked fought to stay upright.

"My only regret is that I died before he published that series it would have been very interesting to see what he wrote," said Tobirama with a slight nosebleed. All three kages broke out laughing at that point and fell down on the cloud they were laughing so hard. That is until they all looked up to see the angry face of the Shinigami staring back at them. "Ummm, Minato what was it you said last time we ran into Shinigami?"

"I think it went something like, GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY, EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!" With that all three kages made to run for it only to run straight into each other.

"**Now then, time to go back to the stomach you three," **said the Shinigami as he moved towards the three spirits.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

**There you go guys, hope you enjoyed it. The next chapter might be up sooner than usual, because I have a little more free time now.**

**Anyway please review, also please vote on my pole and let me know if you think I should go ahead and start another story or finish this one first.**

**BSW**


	5. Chapter 5

**gohan90- well my friend once again thank you for the excellent review. Alright, I guess that thing with the civilian council and their kids was a little confusing, I was planning on putting a quick scene where the Hokage forbid them to talk about his puppets as well, I just couldn't find a good spot without being filler. Ok, Ino's reaction to the fox, well in this story Ino is a little more level headed and isn't pure uncaring fangirl, like Sakura, and her parents like the other clans have tried to get their children to play and get to know Naruto more, so she was already curious, just never acted on it, and about Naruto not telling them what his life was like, he didn't really need to. I mean, jailor of the demon that almost destroyed their village, and peoples even shinobi's lack of understanding of sealing, other than sealing scrolls, he's bound to have a bad life. Not to mention, Ino is a Yamanaka they specialize in psychological jutsu, so most of them are bound to have great understanding of the human mind. Yes, many people are saying Ino got over Sasuke a little to fast, but cut me some slack I'm good at writing that kind of crap like that, so I just went with a quick slap to the head wake up call. As for what Ino said in the last chapter, she may have been a Sasuke fangirl, but even she liked to have friends around, boys and girls. And for the suffix's, here's how I'm going to use them: Kun- is for a boy you care about, Chan- is the same as kun only for girls, Sama- is for anyone in a seat of power, San- is just general respect, Dono- is for people of power talking to each other. And thank you for the suggestion of what story I should start next, that one was one of my favorites and was close to top of my list.**

**R-Rated- Like I said to gohan90, not good at that stuff, she needed a slap to the head.**

**Sang28- Thank you for the puppet suggestion, that's actually an interesting aspect to consider.**

**FallenBleedingAngel- Yes, I agree it was about time she woke up.  
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**Cho Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann- I was actually considering that idea myself, when I saw the story. Great minds think a like, and it kinda follows the same base idea from Sang28. As for the "queen" idea, I think I can incorporate that idea into one of the Nine.**

**Cold Colors- First, I apologize for stumble into a slightly diminished vocabulary, although it was fun to read. I'm glad your enjoying the story, I hope I can keep you interested until the story is complete. As for Ino's epiphany, like I told everyone else, she needed a smack and I'm good at writing that stuff. I'm glad you agree with the team placements, I've read a few puppet stories where Naruto is put on the regular team 7 and it kinda ruins the story. And this is strictly Naru/Ino, no harem, sorry to those who were hoping for one. With the council, I love stories with council bashing, and frankly their idiots, so I gave it a shot myself. With the idea for incorporating Minato and other kages more, I was considering it, but not until much much later. **

**Anyway thank you all for the reviews and KEEP THEM COMING!**

**Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto, if I did the council would be screwed, Naruto would actually be strong and have more than TWO jutsu!  
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**Chapter 5- Mission to Wave and New Puppets**

Kakashi stood across from his team, deciding on who he should test first. Looking over each of them he noticed Ino was standing a little closer to his little brother then she was the day before, _'Ohhhh, I finally have a little blackmail and something I can use to tease my little brother, Hahaha you're in trouble now Naruto.' _Thought Kakashi as he stepped into the middle of the clearing.

"Alright, today you'll each come and spar with me one on one so I can determine what you need to improve on," said Kakashi as the three genin nodded in understanding. "Ok, first the kunoichi of the team."

Ino walked into the clearing and faced Kakashi while she got into the basic academy stance. _'Seems I'll have to find a suitable taijutsu style for her.' _Once he gave the signal to begin, Ino charged him with her fist cocked ready to strike. Once she was in range she let her fist fly towards her sensei's stomach, stepping to the side to avoid the weak strike Kakashi moved in to finish this early. Raising his knee, Kakashi brought it up hitting Ino in the stomach and sending her crashing to the ground. _'Damn I really do suck,' _thought Ino as she tried to get up only to fall down again, but before she could hit the ground she found herself in her blonde team mates arms. Blushing a new shade of red never seen before, she managed to mutter a small 'thank you' as Naruto carried her and set her down next to the training post.

"Alright, next is Kiba." Walking into the field, Kiba got into his family stance and waited for the signal to start. "Begin," said Kakashi as he prepared for the charge. Rushing forward, Kiba lashed out with a left hook which was blocked by Kakashi. Using the caught arm as leverage, Kiba managed to bring his right leg up and kick the jounin in the ribs. Kiba's smirk at getting a hit vanished when he saw Kakashi burst into smoke. Looking around Kiba tried to find his sensei when he noticed his scent behind him. Turning to punch his sensei, Kiba only hit air and became even more scared when he heard his sensei's voice behind him. "Nice try Kiba, but this is over; Leaf Village Secret Finger Jutsu: 1000 Years of Death!" screamed Kakashi as he jammed his fingers, which were in the tiger sign, into Kiba's butt. Nothing happened for a few seconds until Kiba shot off like a rocket grabbing his butt while howling in pain. Kiba crashed right beside his team mates who winced at the attack the effect it had.

"Ok, last but not least Naruto," said Kakashi as he moved into a stance as his student did the same. When he gave the signal to begin, Naruto shot at him with jounin level speeds. Jumping into the air Naruto tried to hit his sensei with a spin kick to the head, which Kakashi ducked under at the last second not expecting such an attack. Taking advantage of their position Kakashi grabbed onto Naruto's ankle, and threw the blonde away. Following his student knowing that he would recover soon, Kakashi sent an ax kick to the blondes shoulder. Catching the kick before it could hit Naruto copied his sensei and threw the man away from him and charged only this time with a punch aimed at his sensei's chest.

While this was going on, Kiba and Ino looked like two fish out of water. Each was trying to find out when Naruto got so good and why he didn't show it in the academy. _'Oh man, Naruto's even better than I thought; he's going toe to toe with a jounin and holding his own. I have got to ask him how he got so good,' _thought Kiba as he continued to watch the fight. _'Naruto-kun, what else have you been keeping from everyone, you never showed this kind of skill in the academy. It doesn't matter, I'll get stronger so I can stand with you Naruto-kun,' _thought Ino as the fight came to an end with Kakashi getting Naruto into a headlock.

"Well I must say I'm impressed, each of you performed admirably. Ino, you need to improve on your taijutsu as well as your stamina as well as chakra reserves from what I can sense from you. Kiba your taijutsu is good, but you charge in without a plan and just swing wild shots hoping to get a hit, we'll have to work on your concentration and patience. As for you Naruto, your taijutsu is good, your stamina is insane and you came at me with a plan on how to counter, for now you can train using your normal way until Ino and Kiba are up to snuff. That said, we won't be doing any missions for the first few months. Instead I'll be training you three till you can't stand and then we'll train some more. My intention is to have you three at least high chuunin to low jounin level by the time the chuunin exams come around," said Kakashi as he looked over his team. Each of them had a burning determination in their eyes; he knew that they would go far together, perhaps even surpassing the Legendary Sannin trained by the Third.

For the next three months team 7 trained almost endlessly. While Kakashi seemed lay back and friendly on the outside, he was a slave driver at heart. The exercises he had them doing could almost be called inhumane, even Naruto with his ungodly stamina was hard pressed to complete the exercises. The first month was spent improving their taijutsu and stamina, as well as their teamwork. Kakashi discovered that three genin had a sixth sense of sorts when it came to working together. They were like a well-oiled machine when they fought together, covering each other's blind spots and using combination after combination to through their enemy off balance. Over the course of the month, Ino had studied up on her clan style, but discovered that it didn't really suit her flexible body. Instead she trained using The Cat's Paw style Naruto had discovered when he raided the Hokage's library all those years ago. Her stamina had shot through roof during the month, between Naruto's insane stamina and Kakashi's sadistic hell runs, she had improved by leaps and bounds.

Kiba's taijutsu, while good when they started, had improved almost as much as Ino's. They discovered that while the style worked for him, Kiba wasn't really suited to use the regular Inuzuka style of taijutsu. When Kakashi had asked if his clan had any other style's he could use that involved using a dog partner, Kiba told him he didn't know of any. After that conversation, Kiba searched through his clan's jutsu library and discovered a long lost style called the Dog's Fang style that no one other than the founder of the clan had been able to use. When Kiba studied it and tried some of the stances and attacks he noticed that he style felt almost like it was made for him. When he and Akamaru tried using some of the combinations the style used, they pulled them off with ease. Afterward, Kiba had abandoned the regular Inuzuka style in favor of his ancestor's style. Like Ino, Kiba's and Akamaru's stamina shot through the roof.

Naruto, while already quite skilled, had discovered that even though he knew multiple styles from the shinobi he turned into puppets, none of them truly worked well with him. When he tried to find another style to train in, Kurama had suggested he train using the Fox Claw style, his own personal style. Naruto also discovered that Kurama was even more of a slave driver than Kakashi ever was with how he ran him nearly ragged teaching him the Fox Claw style. Naruto's already incredible stamina had only increased with the constant training from Kakashi and Kurama.

During their second month of training, Kakashi had focused mainly on chakra control as well as figuring out their elemental affinities. Naruto proved to be the best at control on the squad and ended up helping Ino and Kiba improve. Halfway through the month, Kakashi had asked Naruto to teach the other two the Shadow Clone Jutsu to help speed up their training. Once Naruto had taught them the Shadow Clone, the rate at which they were improving shot clean through the roof. While Kiba and Ino could only make 5 and 3 clones respectively at their current level, it still increased their rate of learning enough to impress Kakashi.

When he had tested them to find their elemental affinities, he almost had a heart attack from the results. When Kiba focused chakra into the piece of chakra paper Kakashi had given him, the paper crumpled up, turned into dirt and then burst into flames. Ino's paper was just as shocking, when she added her chakra the paper split down the middle then one side turned damp while the other turned into dirt. Naruto's however, was the most shocking, his paper split five pieces then one caught fire, another got soggy, one crumpled up, one turned to dirt, and the last piece turned into wood. After getting over his shock, Kakashi had them get started on learning to manipulate their elements. With the use of the shadow clones, each of them was able to master their elements half way through the third month.

Team 7 spent the rest of the third month working on stealth, while they had shadow clones learning and studying new jutsu and techniques that a clone of Kakashi taught them, and that a clone of Naruto's showed them. Kakashi currently was standing before his team with a proud smile adorning his masked face, his team had come far in the time they spent training. As he looked them over he noticed the differences in them compared when they first met.

Kiba was a little taller, matching Naruto in height as well as muscle mass. He no longer wore his grey jacket with the fur on the hood; instead he now wore black Anbu style pants and an Anbu style sleeveless shirt with an open black coat that went down to his waist over it with red lightning dancing on the button of the jacket. He had Anbu grade arm and leg bracers, and he had grown his hair out a little making his already feral appearance even more prominent. Akamaru stood by Kiba's side, because of the style he and Kiba started using and the exercises he did with his master and his team mates, Akamaru had grown fast already reaching a little above Kiba's knee in height.

Ino had also changed greatly over the course of their training, now that she had given up her diet she had gained a little bit of muscle on her body. She no longer wore her purple two piece outfit, instead she now wore a pair of black skin tight shorts that reached just above her knees under a black sash like skirt that went down to her knee on her right side and to about mid-thigh on her left that had a water pattern at the bottom. She also wore a skin tight Anbu grade black shirt that showed her midsection and complimented her developing figure. She had Anbu style arm and leg bracers like Kiba, but under her arm bracers she wore black combat bandages wrapped up to her elbows.

Naruto's outfit hadn't changed much except he taken to wearing Anbu arm and leg bracers like his team mates. Glancing over his team one last time Kakashi spoke to them with a proud tone.

"I'm proud of all of you, you have come far in only three months times and that alone is impressive. Now I believe it is time that we go get are first mission from the Hokage." That said, all of them shunshin'd to the Hokage tower, Kiba taking Akamaru with him. As they walked into the mission room they noticed team 8 and team 10 were there as well, and that Sasuke and Sakura seemed to be glaring at the cat that was currently being crushed in a hug by the Daimyo's wife, Lady Shima. The Hokage looked up at the sound of the door opening and noticed the new team 7 enter the room to receive their first mission.

"Ahhh Kakashi, I was wondering when I would be seeing you and your team. Now I presume you're here for your first mission is that correct?" asked the aged kage, catching the attention of everyone else in the room. When the other rookies saw team 7 they did a double take their appearances, they looked nothing like they did in the academy. Shikamaru, Choji, and even though he didn't show it, Shino were wondering how Naruto and Kiba had gotten so much muscle, while Sakura and Hinata were looking at Ino trying to figure out how she had gotten that kind of figure. _'WHAT, I can't believe it Ino-pig looks beautiful and with that figure she might catch Sasuke's eye before I do. I CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN!' _Sakura thought as she starred at her rival. _'That witch, if she's trying to seduce Naruto-kun I swear I will destroy her!' _thought Hinata as she planned what she would do to Ino, and they weren't exactly the healthiest of thoughts.

"Yes Lord Hokage, I would like to request a C-rank mission for my team," said Kakashi surprising the other jounin and the Hokage in the process.

"Are you serious Kakashi, your team hasn't even done one mission yet and you're asking for a C-rank?" asked Kurenai as she looked at the cycloptic jounin like he was crazy.

"I agree with Kurenai on this one Kakashi, your team hasn't done a single mission for three months and the first one you request is a C-rank, you sure they can handle it?" asked Asuma who looked worried for Kakashi's young charges.

"Hn, he's probably bluffing there's no way the dobe could handle a C-rank mission, he would probably fail at a D-rank one," said Sasuke in an arrogant tone.

"Yeah Sasuke-kun's right, there's no way that loser could even do a D-rank mission right. I almost feel sorry for you Ino-pig, your team is pathetic," Sakura screeched and then started to laugh while pointing at team 7. No sooner had she finished then was there a blade to hers and Sasuke's necks. Everyone was frozen in shock, they didn't even sense the presence of the attackers until they already had the two genin trapped. Sakura was being held off the ground with Kami behind her, his tanto to her throat ready to slit it. Sasuke wasn't fairing any better, he was being held down by Shinigami who had the hidden blade in his arm at his throat.

"You know, you two are really starting to annoy me. If it wasn't for the fact that I promised the Hokage I wouldn't kill people who didn't attack me first, you two would be dead right now." The tone in Naruto's voice made everyone's blood run cold, except for his team mates and sensei.

"Naruto, please release them we don't need any unnecessary blood shed right now," said the calm voice of the Hokage, though on the inside he was actually thinking of allowing Naruto to carry out that threat.

"Very well, Lord Hokage." Once again everyone other than team 7 was in a state of shock, _'DID NARUTO UZUMAKI JUST SHOW RESPECT TO THE HOKAGE?" _was the general thought that went through almost everyone's head. With a twitch of his fingers, Kami and Shinigami were standing behind Naruto who made a hand sign and they disappeared in a poof of smoke into their storage seals on Naruto's shoulders were the kanji for 'Kami' and 'Shinigami' were tattooed. "Hey old man, can we get our mission now?" asked Naruto as everyone relaxed knowing that it wasn't the end of the world.

"Yes, I have one right here. It is an escort mission to Wave Country; you will be escorting a bridge builder by the name of Tazuna to his home in the land of waves, and you will protect him until he completes the bridge he is currently building." Team 7 nodded their heads in acceptance. Sasuke was about to demand that he get the mission instead of Naruto, when the Hokage cut him, "Send in Tazuna please!"

A man in his fifties or sixties walked into the room, wearing a brown sleeveless shirt and tan pants. He had towel around his shoulders and he carried a bottle of sake and was obviously a little drunk. When the Hokage introduced him to team 7 he was a little put off.

"This is my protection, there nothing but a bunch of snot noses brats. Especially that blonde in the red there, he looks like the weakest one of them all." He managed to slur out, only to have two senbon barely miss his little friend and then found himself trapped with three blades, each at a vital point on his body, pressing into him. No one could believe what they saw, or lack thereof. Team 7 had moved and trapped Tazuna before anyone could even blink and each had a kunai poised to kill the man should he do anything stupid.

"We may be young, but we are more than skilled enough to handle this mission," said Kiba while pressed his kunai a little harder into Tazuna's heart. Akamaru growled his agreement from his position in front of the trapped man.

"The first thing a shinobi is taught is to never underestimate their opponents. Doing that could lead to your death," said Ino pushing her blade closer to Tazuna's kidney.

"The senbon I threw at you, are coated in a poison that will burn off any limb it infects. So if unless you want an involuntary gender change, I suggest you not mouth off about us again," said Naruto as he pressed his kunai harder into Tazuna's neck drawing a little blood.

"That's enough, team 7 meet at the south gate in twenty minutes, dismissed!" said Kakashi as team 7 all shunshin'd away to prepare. "Tazuna, I may be their sensei and superior, but next time you do something stupid like that that insults them, even I won't be able to save you." With that said Kakashi shunshin'd to get ready, leaving behind a scarred bridge builder, an impressed Hokage and a freaked out team 8 and 10.

Twenty minutes later, team 7 stood waiting for their client to show up. Five minutes later, Tazuna could be seen approaching the gate his bottle of sake still in his hand and a traveling pack on his back.

"Your late, from now on Tazuna you will show up on time or you'll be left behind, understand?" asked Kakashi with a little bit of killing intent to help get the point across. All the aged bridge builder could do was nod his head furiously; he was currently too busy trying not to wet himself to talk. "Good, then let's move out."

The group walked in silence for a few hours, the shinobi on alert for any possible threat, and Tazuna was busy trying remain calm and not give away that he lied about the mission specs. After a while of walking, the group passed what appeared to be a puddle on the side of the road. Noticing something was off; Naruto signaled his team asking is they caught it. They each responded yes and the genin braced themselves for their first official fight. After the group passed the puddle, two figures rose from the water and charged the unsuspecting leaf shinobi. They managed to wrap the spiked chain linking them together around Kakashi and spoke in unison.

"One down." With a hard yank on their chain Kakashi was shredded to pieces. After they 'killed' Kakashi the two moved to finish Tazuna only to have a shuriken stick their chain to a tree courtesy of Ino. Kiba then though a kunai that lodged in the middle of the shuriken holding the chain in place. Naruto took the opening his team mates provided and threw two poisoned senbon at the Demon Brothers. The senbon met their mark and pierced the two's hearts killing them almost instantly. Kakashi appeared out of the tree he was hiding in and approached the group.

"Good job team, you showed excellent team work in trapping and eliminating those two. Naruto if you want the bodies are yours to turn into puppets, you could learn very valuable secrets from them," said Kakashi as Naruto placed preservation seals on the two brothers and sealed them into a scroll for later. "Now, Tazuna I believe you have some explaining to do."

Fearing they would abandon the mission, Tazuna told his little sob story about how the country was dying because of Gato, and if he didn't finish the bridge then his country would never recover. Kakashi left the decision to his team, and they decided to continue on saying it would be good real world experience. They continued making their way towards Wave and eventually came to a port were a boat was waiting to take them to Wave. Once they reached the country, they made their towards Tazuna's house when Naruto and Kiba heard what sounded like a blade flying through the air.

"Everybody down!" the two shouted as they dove for the ground, Kiba grabbing Akamaru on the way, Kakashi grabbing Tazuna, and Naruto grabbing Ino. They barely made it to the ground before a huge zanbato flew over their heads. The sword embedded itself into a tree and when everyone looked up they saw a man wearing blue pinned stripped pants, no shirt and arm warmers appear of the handle of the blade. "Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Hidden Mist, former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist, A-rank rogue ninja and master of the silent killing technique," said Naruto as he got up into a defensive stance, the others following him with Tazuna behind them.

"Heh, your pretty smart kid. Tell me, how is it a wet behind the ears leaf genin knows who I am?" asked Zabuza as he bent down and gripped the handle of his sword.

"Simple, I stole the latest bingo book from an Anbu," said Naruto as if it was nothing. At that point Zabuza burst out in a crazed laugh.

"Man, thanks kid I needed that. But now onto business, hand over the old man and I'll let you live," said Zabuza as he gripped his sword tighter, preparing to strike. Naruto was about to respond when Kakashi put hand in front of him. Looking at his sensei, Naruto understood that he would handle their new friend. Naruto jumped back with Ino and Kiba forming a defensive delta around Tazuna, with Naruto at point.

"So, the man who copied over a thousand jutsu, the copy ninja, Sharingan Kakashi," said Zabuza as Kakashi pulled up head band revealing the Sharingan in his left eye. "Let's see who the better assassin is, shall we?" with that Zabuza pulled his sword from the tree and landed on the lack in front of them. "Hidden Mist Jutsu."

A thick mist started forming and obscured everyone's vision. Each member of team 7 expelled chakra from their bodies to help dissipate the mist a little. Before any of them could try and find Zabuza, his voice rang through the mist.

"Eight points; Liver, Lungs, Spine, Clavicle vein, Neck vein, Brain, Kidneys, Heart. Now which shall be my target?" the three surrounding Tazuna moved closer together to protect him when the voice finished. _'He's an assassin, he'll want to do this in the fastest way possible and to do that he would probably take one of us out first and then kill Tazuna and flee with his mission accomplished. Our formation eliminates the odds of him sneaking up on one of us without the others knowing, the only weakness in this formation is…' _

"The middle," said Naruto as he spun around stabbing his kunai into Zabuza's stomach. His team mates had responded at the same time and each of them had stabbed Zabuza in a vital part of his body. However, instead of blood coming from the wounds, it was water. The clone burst into water, while Zabuza appeared behind Naruto and slashed him clean in half with his sword. _'The genin will be scared now, it'll be easier to kill them,' _thought Zabuza as he glanced at the two remaining genin. To his surprise neither looked effected by their team mate's death, in fact they were smirking.

"Hey no brow, looking for me?" asked Naruto as he stood on the tip of Zabuza's sword. Whirling around to face the voice, Zabuza's eyes widened when he saw the kid he supposedly killed standing on his still extended blade. Before he could react, Kakashi intervened and attacked Zabuza with a barrage of punches and kicks.

Zabuza was hard pressed to hold his own against the copycat, since taijutsu had never truly been his best skill. Breaking off from the fight, Zabuza jumped onto the lake while forming hand signs. With the Sharingan, Kakashi was able to predict his movements and copied them in perfect sync. They finished their hand signs at the same time and launched their jutsu's.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" both dragons collided in a battle of wills, while there casters charged in and met in another round of taijutsu. Seeing the opening, Naruto signaled to his team mates and they prepared their own jutsu.

"Lightning Style: Lightning Spear Jutsu!" lightning began jumping between Kiba's hands and formed a small ball of energy in between them. Once the energy was condensed Kiba shot a long spear of lightning towards Zabuza.

"Water Style: Water Shark Jutsu!" the water at the edge of the lake started bubbling until a shark made completely out of water shot out at Zabuza.

"Fire Style: Flaming Arrow Jutsu!" Naruto's right hand erupted in flames and when he jabbed his hand forward, the flames shot out towards its target.

Seeing the three, lethal jutsu, heading for him Zabuza broke off from Kakashi and move towards the edge of the forest in hopes of escaping. Unfortunately for him, Kakashi anticipated this and threw four kunai that nailed Zabuza to a tree. Walking up to the prone man, Kakashi took out another kunai ready to end it. Before he could deliver the final blow though, two senbon came out of nowhere and embedded themselves in Zabuza's neck.

"Thank you for your help in capturing him, I have been tracking him for some time now. Now if you will excuse me, I must dispose of the body," said a ninja wearing the standard hunter-nin mask of the Mist village. He jumped down to the body and shunshin'd away from the leaf team.

"Alright team, let's keep moving we still need to get to Tazuna's before nightfall," said Kakashi as he lowered his headband and they continued making their way to their clients house. It was an hour later that they arrived at Tazuna's house, they were introduced to Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter and his grandson Inari, who just glared at them and left. After everyone had some time to rest, Kakashi gathered his team and Tazuna in the living room for a meeting.

"Alright, first off I don't think we've seen the last of Zabuza, he's probably still alive and preparing for another strike." This information caused Tazuna to almost lose control of his boules, while the genin looked calm and ready for another fight.

"I agree sensei, that hunter-nin should have disposed of the body right on the spot, but instead took it away. He's probably working with Zabuza, perhaps an apprentice, based on how old the boy looked," said Naruto as the other ninja in the room nodded in agreement. "Also sensei, how far are we from the Hidden Mist Village?"

"I'd say about a day's run across the water," said Kakashi, "Why do you ask?"

"There's something there that I think could be helpful when we face one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, again and I would like to go and get it," said Naruto as his team nodded in understanding, having got the hint.

"Very well Naruto, you can go get it. But be careful, remember Mist in the middle of a civil war right now," said Kakashi as he looked at his student who nodded in understanding.

"I'll leave behind a Blood Clone to keep an eye on the house, while you three guard Tazuna. Zabuza may not attack innocents, but Gato wouldn't hesitate to," said Naruto as he took out a kunai. Slicing open his palm, he ran through a few hand seals and said, "Forbidden Art: Blood Clone Jutsu." The blood from his palm fell to the floor and started to grow and expand, when it finally stopped another Naruto stood in the room. "I'll head out now sensei, my clone will watch over the house while you guys are busy. See ya later." Naruto was out the door and already a dot on the horizon after he finished.

"Ok while Naruto's gone, we'll take shifts in guarding Tazuna while he's at the bridge. I'll take first watch, while you two use that time to train. Ino will go second and then Kiba, when it's not my shift I'll be helping whichever one of you is not on duty train, understand?" said Kakashi, receiving nods from his team and Tazuna. _'Be careful out there little brother and hurry back with that help. It will be interesting to see the look on Zabuza's face when he sees what Naruto has,' _thought Kakashi as he and his team laughed a little; apparently they shared similar thoughts.

It has been a week since team 7's arrival in Wave, and Naruto's departure for Mist. When the team got ready for the day, they had a feeling today something was going to happen. It was decided that all of them would guard Tazuna today, leaving the Naruto clone to watch the house. When they arrived at the bridge they discovered all the workers unconscious, sprawled all over the place. A heavy mist started forming over the bridge, while an all too familiar voice came from it.

"Well, well, it seems we meet again Kakashi. It looks like your missing one of your students, did I scare him off?" asked Zabuza with mirth in his voice as he stepped into view with the fake hunter-nin by his side.

"Like Naruto-kun would be scared of an eye browless freak like you," said Ino as she drew a kunai ready to fight. Kiba mimicked her, drawing one of his own while Akamaru lowered himself to ground ready to fight. Kakashi raised his headband knowing this was going to get ugly.

"Ohh seems you hit nerve with that one Zabuza-sama. It seems you have a crush on that blonde team mate of yours, don't you?" asked Haku from behind his mask.

"Maybe I do what of it?" said Ino; she was starting to get annoyed, and if it weren't for her sensei telling them before hand to let him handle Zabuza she would have attacked the freak.

"Maybe I'll make you watch while I'll kill him slowly and painfully, hmm yeah that should work. Haku grab the girl and keep her alive, we'll force her to watch while we kill the rest of her team," ordered Zabuza. Haku was about to move to capture her, before another voice came from the mist, and it didn't sound happy.

"Lay one hand on Ino-chan, and I'll kill you both." The tone in the voice made Zabuza almost want to rethink this mission, but pushed that aside. What could a lowly genin do to him? Haku however was scared, the voice was laced with killing intent, and it was all directed at him. Just as the two were about to attack, five shadows appeared in the mist behind them. Turning to look at the new arrivals, Zabuza's blood ran cold when he recognized who they were. _'But that's impossible; they're all dead aren't they? I was there when they were buried how is this possible?' _was what went through Zabuza's mind.

Standing in front of them, were five of the former members of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. The first one, Kushimaru Kuriarare was a tall, thin man. His long shaggy hair swaying in the ocean breeze, his face as always, covered by his Anbu mask. He wore a sleeveless black shirt, matching pants with stripped arm and leg warmers.

The next member was Ameyuri Ringo; he was the shortest of the group compared to the others. His long hair going down his back, with his headband tied securely across his forehead. He wore a loose fitting pin stripped shirt and a dark obi wrapped around his waist. He also had on black pants with stripped leg warmers.

Jinpachi Munashi had long hair with beads in it, his headband around his forehead and an eye patch over his left eye hiding a battle scar. His loose pin stripped shirt covered the upper portion of his black pants, while his pin stripped leg warmers covered the portion around his ankles.

Mangetsu Hozuki wore a dark sleeveless shirt with light pants and pin stripped leg warmers. He had a container of water on his belt as well as a holster containing a scroll on the other side.

Jinin Akebino had his dark hair up in a small ponytail on his head, while his goatee and nose stood out on his face. He wore a poncho like cloak over a dark sleeveless shirt with black pants. Like all the swordsman from there generation, he had pin stripped arm and leg warmers.

"No… this can't be happening I buried you all, how is it your still alive?" screamed Zabuza as he tried to understand what was going on. When none of them responded he tried again. "Are you even listening to me, answer me! Mangetsu what's happening?"

While this was going on, team 7 was currently shocked at this turn of events. They had expected Naruto to take one of the bodies and turn it into a puppet, not five of them! _'Well that explains, why he took longer than I thought he would to get back,' _thought Kakashi as he continued to observe the situation. _'Damn, when Naruto said help I thought he meant one of the swords, but the swordsmen themselves is a little surprising,' _thought Kiba as he watched the show with barely contained laughter. _'He called me Ino-chan, maybe he really does return my feelings,' _thought Ino as she tried to sense her blonde crush in the mist. She found him standing behind her, turning around to face him; she received a small peck on the lips from him. When they parted he gave her a true smile.

"When we get back to the Leaf, I am taking you out wherever you want," he said as Ino resisted the urge to squeal in excitement. Zabuza and Haku heard the blonde's voice and turned to them, ready to fight. Unfortunately, they made the mistake no shinobi should make; they turned their back on their enemy. Taking advantage of their mistake, Naruto twitched his finger and Mangetsu launched forward with his arms turning into water spears thanks to his kekkei genkai. Neither Zabuza nor Haku saw it coming; Mangetsu stabbed them both in the heart and jumped to stand by team 7 with the other swordsman following. "Well that only leaves Gato and…" Naruto never got to finish as he was interrupted by the sound of clapping.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? The Demon of the Mist killed by a little punk, how sad. Oh well, I never planned on paying him anyway," said Gato as he and about a hundred thugs showed up at the end of the bridge. "Hand over the bridge builder, or die," he said as his thugs got ready to charge.

"Like hell we'll hand over Tazuna, you midget!" screamed Kiba. It seemed Gato didn't like being called a midget, what with the steam coming out of his ears and all.

"That's it kill them, but leave the girl, she could be entertaining," ordered Gato as he ran behind his thugs. They were about to charge when the air was suddenly filled with killing intent. Team 7 turned to look at the source, only to come face to face with a pissed off Naruto. His chakra started radiating above him and it took the shape of a fox's head. The thugs were scared, but their stupidity seemed to overcome their fear since they charge towards the group of shinobi.

Naruto flicked his wrist and Mangetsu took out the scroll from its holster and opened it, revealing storage seals with the kanji for, 'Sever,' 'Great,' 'Long,' 'Blunt,' 'Blast,' 'Bolt,' and 'Twin' in the middle of the seals. The seals with 'Sever' and 'Great' were darkened, meaning there was nothing sealed in them at the moment. The last five seals exploded in smoke, out of the smoke came five of the legendary swords used by the Seven Swordsmen.

Jinin grabbed the one that looked like a single blade ax, with a hammer attached, the Blunt Sword, Helmsplitter. Kushimaru had a long, thin bladed sword with wire attached, the Long Sword, Threading Needle. Jinpachi caught one that looked like a giant scroll of paper bombs with a blade on the outside of the scroll, the Blast Sword, Splash. Ameyuri caught two swords; they each had one extension coming from both sides of the blade, the Bolt Sword, Lightning Fangs. Lastly Mangetsu caught one that had two handles coming out of the end of a blade that looked like a giant arrow head, the Twin Sword.

With death in his eyes, Naruto starred at the incoming thugs with all the hate he could muster. Flicking both his hands forward the swordsman charged at the thugs. Mangetsu was the first to reach them; swinging his sword he sliced five clean in half. Focusing chakra into the blade, it grew in length and with another swing killed another group of thugs. Jinin was running through the thugs chopping and crushing any who got in his way. One thug tried to block his sword with a shield, when the two met Jinin brought the hammer end of his sword down on the back of the blade, splitting both shield and wielder in two. Kushimaru was busy bobbing and weaving around the group of thug's piercing them in random spots and threading them together using the wire attached to his sword. Jinpachi swung his sword at a group of charging bandits; the ones that didn't fall to the blade were killed by the explosion that followed. Moving deeper into their ranks, he caused more and more explosions killing multiple bandits at once. Ameyuri was busy using his lightning infused swords to slice into one enemy after another. No one was safe from his swords and he took advantage of that fact greatly.

While his puppets took care of the thugs, Naruto made his way towards the cowering Gato. This man had threatened to rape Ino, and that was unforgivable. Lifting Zabuza's sword above his head he brought it down on the business man's head, cleaving his body in half. With the scum dead and the thugs soon to join them team 7 made their way back to Tazuna's for some well-deserved rest, the swordsmen following behind at Naruto's control.

It was two weeks after the battle and team 7 stood at the end of the completed bridge, with over half of the Wave population there to see them off.

"Alright team, lets head home," said Kakashi as he started making his way back to the Leaf Village, with his team following. As the figures of team 7 vanished over the horizon, one villager asked what they were going to name the bridge.

"We'll call it the Great Naruto Bridge, in honor of the boy… no man, who saved this village from a tyrant," said Tazuna as he watched the figures disappear.

**Well there you go, and before anyone tries to kill me for the short fight between team 7 and Zabuza, and for those who were hoping for a fight between Zabuza and his fellow swordsman, I apologize. I just feel that some people have over used the Wave Arc, and I just wanted to get past it and move into the Chuunin Exam Arc, which I plan to make a little longer and hopefully more detailed. Also, Naruto will meet Itachi and Kisame a little sooner than normal. Till next time, see ya.**

**BSW  
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	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys, I'm back! First off I would like to apologize for not updating in a while, I had a slight case of writers block, so this chapter may not be up to snuff, if so just bare with me please. Second, a lot of people have complained that I made Ino get over Sasuke way to fast, while others say it was about time. Well for those of you who thought it was to fast I apologize, but I have somethings planned that required the two of them together early on (Hint: I hope you people like a cat fight).**

**gohan90- I understand that you don't like it when an author makes main characters geniuses, but for some of the things I have planned, I needed them strong. That's something I notice often, is that readers wont trust the author to have a reason for doing something and just assume something, so I'm asking that you please have some faith in me. As to comparing them to the Sannin, that means that they have as much POTENTIAL as the Sannin, that doesn't mean they are like the Sannin. And your assumption of the Sannin being geniuses isn't correct, Orochimaru was the only genius, Tsunade was like Sakura just a HELL of a lot more focused, and Jiraiya was the fool like Naruto. As for Ino and Kiba using clones to train, its not impossible. Anyone can use Shadow Clones to train as long as they can make a shadow clone. Naruto is the only one who can bring out the true potential of this form of training.**

**crystal Coronello- I was planning on having him do that, on more then one occasion.**

**Sang28- you have no idea**

**SuperSaiyan9- I couldn't really come up with another mission, and I choose Zabuza because Kisame will appear later and I never truly saw Raiga as a member of the Seven Swordsmen.**

**Slifer1988- No sorry, Naruto want be getting any puppets like that.**

**HorusRa- First, I'll consider something like that for Kiba and Ino and second, sorry but there will be absolutely NO Naru/Hina. That pairing just doesn't work with my Naruto, who will start showing his darker nature very soon, and his team might be joining him.**

**Fox of the Blood Moon- Sorry it looks that way, but that seemed like the best time to give him the Swordsmen puppets.**

**Dark Hearted Dragon's Master- Thank you for the poison suggestion, I might have Naruto do that just to piss off the council. And yes I plan on 'completing the set' with Kisame.**

**weirn018- I agree, a pissed Kushina is pretty much the apocalypse for her victim.**

**Hyrulian Hero Akai- Thank you for the review, and please let me know how I'm doing from time to time.**

**R-Rated- Thank you, not many people see it that way.**

**traviswj- Your assumption is correct.**

**Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto, but I can dream can't I  
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**Chapter 6- The Chuunin Exams Begin**

Team 7 was walking along the dirt path that would take them back home to the Hidden Leaf Village. They had departed from Wave a few hours ago and the sun was at its peak, casting a warm glow on our traveling hero's.

"Alright team, once we get back to the village we'll give our report to the Hokage and see about getting another mission unless you would rather take a break, it's your choice whether or not we take another mission," said Kakashi keeping his eyes on the path ahead of them. Behind him his team looked at each other before nodding in unison, Naruto spoke up for them.

"How about a compromise sensei, it's early enough that we could take a break for an hour or so and then we can take on another mission." Kakashi thought about it for a few seconds before nodding himself.

"Alright, we'll give our report to the Hokage and see what missions are available before taking a two hour break. After that we'll do whatever mission is available," said Kakashi, before he remembered something that would probably piss his team off. Cursing under his breath, Kakashi decided to get it over with, _'Either way I'll end up running for my life once I'm done,' _thought Kakashi before speaking. "Team I just remembered something that you're not going to like," this caught his team's attention and each of them suddenly had an urge to crush their sensei, "The Chuunin Exams are being held soon, in a month if I'm not mistaken, and this year they are being held in the Leaf village. You three are probably the most prepared team as it stands, but you're nowhere near the level I want you at before you take them. Now what I wanted to tell you was that no matter how skilled a team is they are not permitted to take part in the exams unless they have completed a minimum requirement of 15 D-rank missions and 5 C-rank missions. This was our first mission and it was a C-rank, you have to complete four more of these and, even though you don't want to, you have to complete fifteen D-rank missions." Once he finished explaining he braced himself for the run that would determine whether he lived or died.

Team 7 was rooted in place, they knew they were incredibly skilled but they didn't let that go to their heads. They had long ago decided as a team that unless it was absolutely necessary, there was no way in hell that they would do any of those chores the Hokage called a mission. Now they find out that if they even wanted a chance at moving up in the ranks, they would have to complete fifteen of those chores. Team 7 shared the same thought at that second, _'WHY DIDN'T HE US THIS SOONER? KAKASHI-SENSEI YOU ARE SO DEAD!' _and just as Kakashi predicted, he was running for his life the second the information finally sank in.

"GET BACK HERE KAKASHI-SENSEI, WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU TELL US THIS SOONER?" screamed Ino as she and her team continued to chase their sensei through the forest of Fire Country. Kakashi was currently straining to just stay ahead of his students and avoid their ultimate wrath, with anime tears rolling down his face he tried to placate them some.

"I'm sorry; it honestly slipped my mind that you had to complete a certain number of missions to take the exams!" he said turning to see how close his team actually was, only for his tears to increase and him to speed up as they seemed to be getting even closer than they had before.

"NOT GOOD ENOUGH SENSEI! WE TOLD YOU WHEN WE WERE FIRST FORMED THAT THERE WAS NO WAY IN HELL WE WOULD DO THOSE STUPID CHORES, AND NOW YOU TELL US THAT IF WE WANT TO TAKE THE CHUUNIN EXAMS WE HAVE TO DO THEM! YOU ARE SO DEAD SENSEI!" screamed Kiba as Akamaru started to try and bite at their sensei's rear after catching up. This only served to scare the cycloptic jounin even more and forced him to move even faster.

"KAKASHI-SENSEI, WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU I SWEAR I AM GOING TO USE KAMI AND SHINIGAMI ON YOU FOR THIS!" screamed Naruto, trying to decide whether to use said brothers now and scare their sensei even more then he already was or wait and enjoy the chase. He opted for the latter, and kept chasing him.

"NARUTO YOU WOULDN'T REALLY DO THAT TO YOUR BIG BROTHER WOULD YOU!" screamed Kakashi with fear lacing his voice completely. If Naruto used those two on him then there wouldn't anything left of him afterward. "MINATO-SENSEI IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, PLEASE STOP YOUR SON AND HELP ME PLEEEEAAASSSEEE!"

_In heaven_

Minato was currently laughing his ass off with Hashirama and Tobirama next to him as they watched their only living heir and his team chase one of his old students.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, yeah right Kakashi why would I stop him? This is some of the best entertainment I've had in a long time!" said Minato as he tried to control his laughter and failing miserably, if his now blue face was anything to go by.

"I agree, why stop this when it's much more entertaining to watch a jounin get chased by three genin, AHAHAHAHAHA!" laughed out Hashirama as cracks started to form along his armor from where he was hitting his chest multiple times in his laughter. Poor Tobirama couldn't even say anything from all the laughing he was doing, it had been so long since he laughed this hard and it was showing as he was literally rolling around the cloud they were on, and didn't see the edge and he continued laughing even as he was falling from rolling off the cloud.

_Back on earth- with Kakashi_

'_Why do I get the feeling I'm being laughed at?' _was Kakashi's last thought before he started screaming bloody murder and tried to escape his still pissed off students by ducking through an ally way. They had reached the village a few minutes ago and had currently put half of the village population in the hospital from the lack of oxygen they got from laughing at the sight of one of the most powerful jounin in the village running from three new genin. This continued for a few more minutes with Kakashi ducking through allies and his team not giving him a moment's rest, until Kakashi turned down an ally only to discover it was dead end. He turned to try and escape only to come face to face with his students, and for brief moment Kakashi saw his future, and in it was pain, pure pain. He saw Naruto unseal Kami and Shinigami while Ino pulled out two kunai and pointed them at his little friend and Kiba cracked his knuckles with a sadistic smirk on his face.

Kakashi's screams or terror and pain could be heard all throughout the village.

The Hokage looked at the sight before him and wondered what the hell happened and prayed he didn't make whatever mistake Kakashi did. Before him was team's 7, 8, and 10, Kakashi was currently sprawled out on the ground his body flinching every now and then, but other than that not moving. Naruto, Ino and Kiba were all half smirking half scowling; even Akamaru appeared to be doing the same. The justice they had given their sensei still didn't make up for the fact that they had to do those stupid chores the Hokage called a mission. Asuma and Kurenai were looking at the mangled body that was once their fellow jounin and then at team 7 and shuddering at the aura they were giving off. Team's 8 and 10 were currently trying to get as far away from team 7 as physically possible due to the aura they were radiating and it didn't feel friendly. Deciding to try and get some answers, Sarutobi cleared his voice to speak.

"Well, I take it you all are here to give your reports for most recent missions, so let's start with team 8," said the aged kage turning to look at the genjutsu using jounin. Getting out of her fear of team 7's genin, Kurenai turned to her leader.

"Mission to repair the damaged fence for Mr. Chiso, completed Lord Hokage," said Kurenai trying to make her voice sound normal. Nodding, Sarutobi turned to his son, who already knew what he was going to say.

"Mission to help Mrs. Kai with her groceries completed dad." Nodding once again, the Hokage turned to the still downed Kakashi, shaking his head he turned to Naruto who stepped forward to speak.

"Mission to protect bridge builder Tazuna, completed. However the mission ranking was incorrect, the originally C-rank mission turned into a B-rank upon the appearance of the Demon Brothers but turned into an A-rank when Zabuza Momochi made an appearance and tried to kill the client. Both attempts were stopped and all the attackers were killed," said Naruto shocking everyone in the room. Sarutobi, Asuma, Kurenai and the other chuunin in the room were shocked that a genin team could not only face Zabuza Momochi, but also kill him. _'They're no ordinary genin team,' _was the shared thought of all the adults in the room. The genin in the room were shocked that three of their own had completed an A-rank mission when they had been doing D-ranks ever since they graduated.

"I see, thank you Naruto. Team 8, team 10 you are dismissed, team 7 stay behind I would like a full report of what happened during the mission and explanation for why Kakashi is currently barely alive," said the Hokage. Team's 8 and 10 nodded and left, except Sasuke who had to be dragged out by his sensei. _'How could the dobe and his team have gotten so strong, I am an Uchiha elite, I deserve to have that power more than they do!' _was the general thought process of the emo as he was dragged away by his sensei. Once everyone had left, the Hokage turned to team 7 only to find Kakashi standing their like nothing had happened to him. "Ok, I want a full report of everything that happened during the mission and before you tell me that, what the hell was going on with Kakashi?"

"Well to answer your second question Lord Hokage, my team had decided that unless it was absolutely necessary they wouldn't do any D-rank missions and I said I agreed with them. But on our way back from the mission, I remembered that in order to participate in the Chuunin Exams they had to complete a minimum of fifteen D-rank missions and after I told them they started chasing me the rest of the way to the village and all throughout it once we returned. I managed to avoid being caught for a while until I went down a dead end and they cornered me, what happened next, I can only describe as pure and utter hell on earth. It would make Ibiki's torcher methods look like a walk in a field of flowers," said Kakashi, shuddering at the end of his explanation. Sarutobi shuddered as well having observed his fair share of tortures Ibiki conducted, he made a mental note never to piss off this genin team and another note to have Ibiki talk to them to see about adding whatever they did to Kakashi to the list of torture methods used by the Torture and Interrogation department.

"Very good, now what happened on mission?" asked the aged kage once again. Team 7 then went into detail about the mission they just completed, leaving nothing out. Once they finished their report, the Hokage was in complete shock, team 7 was definitely better than they were letting on; they managed to kill the Demon Brothers without the assistance of Kakashi and now Naruto had six of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen as his puppets, as well as their swords. _'When Mist gets wind of the fact that they no longer have the swords of the Swordsmen it is going to turn into a shit fest,' _thought Sarutobi while glancing at his favorite blonde headache. "Thank you team 7, if that is all you are free to go."

"Actually Lord Hokage we were hoping to get another mission if we could," said Kakashi with his team nodding in agreement. Nodding, Sarutobi looked through the missions list to see what was available. When he saw that all he had available were D-ranks, he knew shit was going to hit the fan for him.

"All we have at the moment are D-rank missions, if you still want one it will have to be one of those," said Sarutobi, ready to run and hide if need be.

"If that's all there is then that will do, how many do you currently have available?" asked Naruto with a sigh, his team mates mimicking his actions.

"Currently we have ten available," said Sarutobi as he tried to figure out what his surrogate grandson was up to.

"Then we'll take them all," said Naruto surprising everyone in room, except for his team.

"Are you sure Naruto, even with it still being early out completing ten D-rank missions will take quite a while," said the Hokage even more confused.

"We'll be fine old man, just give us the missions," said Naruto with a slight annoyance in his voice. Fearing he may receive the same punishment Kakashi did, Sarutobi handed them the scrolls with details for the ten missions and watched them walk out. Relaxing slightly, he sighed knowing Naruto and his team mates were going to make his already grey hair even greyer.

"Ok team, create some shadow clones and we'll send them to do the other missions," said Kakashi as he formed ten shadow clones while Kiba and Ino created seven and five respectively. "Naruto do you mind covering the rest of the clones?"

"Yeah, yeah I got it," said Naruto as he created nineteen clones, three transformed into Kiba while five transformed into Ino, creating ten copies of team 7. Naruto handed each of Kakashi's clones a scroll and the ten teams left to complete the mission they were given. "Now while the clones handle the chores we can get some training done." Nodding in agreement, the original team 7 left to their training ground to begin training for the Chuunin Exams.

_Two weeks later_

"As you all know the Chuunin Exams are soon, now is there anyone who believes their genin are ready for the exams?" asked the Hokage as he sat behind his desk with his crystal ball on the side of it, before him stood all of the jounin that were currently training a team of genin, along with a couple of high ranking chuunin. No one moved for a few seconds, each trying to decide whether their teams were truly ready for this or not, the first one to step forward was none other than Kakashi Hatake himself.

"I, Kakashi Hatake, nominate team 7 consisting of Naruto Uzumaki, Ino Yamanaka and Kiba Inuzuka to take the Chuunin Exams," said Kakashi surprising everyone present. From what they had heard of that team they were just barely average in the academy, Kiba had the lowest written grades of their class but had decent physical grades, Ino had the worst physical grades next to Sakura Haruno but had average written grades, and Naruto was just an average all around student. All of the jounin present, except for Asuma and Kurenai shared the same thought, _'How the heck could they be ready for the Exams, their files suggested they were the worst team formed this year?'_

Following her fellow jounin's example, Kurenai stepped forward.

"I, Kurenai Yuuhi, nominate team 8 consisting of Hinata Hyuuga, Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi to take the Chuunin Exams," she said standing next to her fellow jounin. She turned to her right just in time to see Asuma walk up to stand on her other side.

"I, Asuma Sarutobi, nominate team 10 consisting of Shino Aburame, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno to take the Chuunin Exams," said the bearded jounin. Everyone else was currently in more of a stupor then they were when Kakashi nominated his team, not only had a rookie team been nominated, all three of the rookie teams had been nominated to take the Chuunin Exams not a year out of the academy.

"Are sure team 10 is ready for the exams Asuma?" asked the aged kage, from what his son has told him they didn't really work as a team.

"Yeah I think their ready for the most part, but really the only reason I nominated them was because if I didn't I would have to listen to that banshee of Haruno screech about not letting her daughter or the _'Great Uchiha' _partake in the exams, and frankly that's a headache I could do without," said Asuma as lit up another smoke. Sympathizing with his youngest, the Hokage nodded before speaking.

"Very well, team's 7, 8, and 10 will partake in the upcoming Chuunin Exams, are there any others who believe their genin are ready?" asked the Hokage turning to look at the rest of the assembled jounin. None of them moved that is until a strangely dressed jounin stepped forward. He had on a hideous green spandex suit with orange leg warmers and an open jounin vest and a red head band tied around his waist like a belt. He had a bowl shaped haircut and his eyebrows wore HUGE!

"I, Might Gai, nominate last year's team 9 consisting of Rock Lee, Neji Hyuuga and Tenten to take the Chuunin Exams," said Gai before striking his nice guy pose causing everyone in the room to shudder, except Kakashi who now had his book in his hand. "Kakashi my rival, my students shall defeat yours in this exam for their FLAMES OF YOUTH BURN BRITHER THAN THE SUN!"

"Huh, you say something Gai?" asked Kakashi in a lazy tone.

"AHHHH, CUSRE YOU KAKASHI, YOU AND YOUR HIP WAYS!"

Clearing his throat to bring attention back to him, and to hopefully avoid listening to Gai start ranting about the 'flames of youth,' the Hokage spoke again.

"Now if that is all the nominees, then you are dismissed," said Sarutobi as he stood to leave. Bowing, the assembled jounin and chuunin left via shunshin. _'This year's Chuunin Exams are going to be very interesting,' _thought Sarutobi as he made his way to the council chamber to inform them of the Chuunin Exam nominees.

_With Team 7- Same time_

"Kakashi-sensei should be at the Chuunin nomination meeting right now," said Kiba as he petted Akamaru who was on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I know he plans on nominating us for the exams, but I wonder who else will be nominated?" said Ino who currently had her arm looped through Naruto's. True to his word, Naruto had taken Ino out on what she claims to be the most romantic night of her life, and after the date ended they had officially become a couple.

"I can probably take a guess; team's 8 and 10 will most likely be nominated. From what we've seen and based on what Kakashi-sensei's told us team 8 works very well together and each of them though they don't always show it, are very capable in combat. Team 10 under normal circumstances would probably not be nominated. They hardly work together or function as a team, and really the only one on the team who is ready for the exams in Shino. The emo is too arrogant and would most likely get himself killed and the banshee is just plain useless," said Naruto as he tried to think of anyone other Leaf teams that might be in the exams. _'I wonder if Gaara, Kankuro and Temari will be here for the exams. I hope so, it's been so long I last saw them,' _thought Naruto sadly, he truly missed his first real friends from the Sand village.

Team 7 stopped when they heard shouting from behind them, turning around revealed it to be a group of three kids running from an angry Sakura Haruno.

"Should we do something?" asked Ino who was debating whether to laugh at the sight or feel sorry for the kids.

"I say we let Forehead there do what she wants, and just report her for child abuse," said Kiba smirking at the thought of causing problems for the annoying banshee.

"I'm inclined to agree Kiba, I say we follow them and enjoy the show," said Naruto as he and his team got out of the way of the scared kids and the pissed off Sakura, who didn't even acknowledge their presence. Running after the group team 7 had to stop themselves from doubling over with laughter when Sakura tried to lung at the kids only to hit dirt. They almost lost it when they saw her go sliding into a couple of garbage cans when she tried to take a corner to fast. Their laughter and enjoyment however was cut short when they heard the kids screaming from around the corner. Naruto was about to run and check it out before a voice he hadn't heard in a long time reached his ears.

"That hurt you little punk, I think you should learn some manners." _'No way, was that Kankuro?' _thought Naruto before he ran at full speed to the ally the kids had run down, his team on his heels. Rounding the corner, Naruto was frozen in shock. In front of him holding the kid wearing the helmet off the ground was none other than Kankuro with his sister Temari next to him. Naruto snapped out of his shock when he saw Kankuro raise a fist to strike the kid.

"I'd put him down if I were you Kankuro," said Naruto. Kankuro, who was just about to swing his fist forward, dropped the kid he was holding when he heard the voice of his little brother's first friend. Not believing it truly was him, Kankuro slowly turned to find the owner of the voice and came face to face to a whisker marked blonde with two others standing next to him.

"No way, Naruto is that you?" he asked in a strangled voice, he couldn't believe it was really him. Temari, who had been about to slap her brother for hitting a kid, was staring at the whisker marked blonde boy in front of them with complete and utter shock on her face.

"I can't believe it, Naruto is that really you?" she asked in a hushed voice.

"It's been a long time hasn't it, Temari, Kankuro?" said Naruto as he stepped closer to them. Temari finally snapped out of her stupor and tackled the blonde boy in a hug, squealing in happiness. Naruto returned the hug whole heartedly and spun Temari around once before setting her back on the ground.

"Naruto, it's so good to see you again, we missed you so much," said Temari who had just let go of the blonde in front of her, _'Wow, he's really filled out, those muscles felt rock hard,' _she thought trying to fight down the blush that threatened to cross her face.

"It's good to see you too, Temari. Hey Kankuro, I see your still wearing that cat outfit of yours," laughed our favorite blonde as he and Kankuro high fived.

"Yep, and I don't plan on changing my look anytime soon," said Kankuro to sound of his sisters groaning.

Ino and Kiba, who had been surprised that their team mate, knew these foreign ninja, finally snapped out of their stupor and walked to stand next to him, while Ino slipped her hand into his to get his attention. Feeling his girlfriend's hand in his, he turned to see her gesturing to Temari and Kankuro with an expectant look in her eyes.

"Oh, sorry about that Ino-chan. Temari, Kankuro allow me to introduce you to my team mates, this is Kiba Inuzuka and his partner Akamaru," said Naruto as Kiba nodded towards two of the Sand Siblings. "And this is my lovely girlfriend Ino Yamanaka," said Naruto while Ino nodded just like Kiba. _'Damn he's off the market, oh well,' _thought Temari with a mental shrug. "So I take it your here for the Chuunin Exams right?"

"Yep, we were trying to find Gaara after we got separated before that kid ran into me," said Kankuro who just noticed the kids had run off. "Damn, they got away."

"It is better this way, that was the Hokage's grandson," said Naruto before he started laughing when he saw Kankuro's face pale dramatically. "Ahahahaha, you should see your face Kankuro!" he managed to laugh out before a new voice caught his attention.

"What did my idiot of a brother do this time?" asked a voice that Naruto knew all too well.

"Oh nothing to bad, just he almost punched the Hokage's grandson. Nothing to get too worked up about, Gaara," said Naruto turning to look at the tree where the voice came from, and sure enough there was his first true friend.

"Haha, if you say so, Naruto," said Gaara as he sand shunshin'd down to them. "So are you taking part in the upcoming Chuunin Exams my friend?"

"Yes they are," said Kakashi as he appeared via shunshin, causing everyone present to jump a foot in the air.

"DAMMIT SENSEI WHAT HAVE WE TOLD YOU ABOUT DOING THAT?" screamed team 7 as they each through a kunai at their sensei. Dodging all the projectiles, Kakashi gave them an eye smile.

"You say not to, but it's just too entertaining to watch your reactions." This got him a death glare from his genin, while the Sand Siblings looked on in amusement. "Come on team, we need to get a little more training in before the exams," he said before turning and making his way toward their training ground.

"Well, I guess I'll see you three in the exams," said Naruto before he turned and left with his team. The Sand Siblings nodded in return before making their way to their hotel.

_Two weeks later- Academy_

Team 7 was walking towards the academy to take the first part of the Chuunin Exams. When they reached the academy they started making their way to the third floor where the exam would be taking place. After they made it to second floor, they came across a large crowd of genin standing outside of room 301, where two older looking genin were blocking the door. _'Are all of them seriously falling for that lame genjutsu,' _thought team 7 together before they started making their way to the real room 301.

When they arrived they were greeted by Kakashi who was standing outside of the room reading his little orange book. Putting his favorite book away when he felt the spike of killing intent from his female student, Kakashi turned to look at his team and couldn't help but be filled with pride. They had come along way and they weren't anywhere near their full potential yet.

"Good luck in their team, and I think it's time to show the world your true colors. You have my permission to go all out during the exams, now go show them what team 7 is made of," he said as he stepped aside and let his team pass.

The three of them stepped forward and opened the doors to the exam room and were met with the sight of hundreds of genin from all over the elemental nations staring at them with all the anger they could muster. Shrugging off the glares, team 7 was about to walk over and join the Sand Siblings when a screeching voice stopped them.

"So they let you all take the exams to huh, guess the deciding to take pity on you," said Sakura as she and her team walked up them. She hadn't changed much in the time since the academy; she still wore her red dress with black shorts underneath with her headband on her head keeping her hair out of her face.

Shino gave a nod to team 7 which was returned while Sasuke and Sakura glared at them. Like Sakura, Shino hadn't changed his appearance still wearing his grey high collared jacket that covered most of his face and sunglasses that hid his eyes with brown shinobi style pants.

Sasuke, like his team mates hadn't changed either. He till wore his blue high collared shirt with the Uchiha fan on the back along with white shorts with white arm warmers. Like usual, he had his permanent scowl on his face.

"Hey Ino-pig, why are you leaning into the dobe?" asked Sakura when she noticed the position her former friend was in.

"Why wouldn't I lean into him, he is my boyfriend after all," said Ino surprising her one time rival.

"Ha, so you finally see that I'm the only one for Sasuke-kun that means he's all mine!" cheered Sakura causing Naruto, Kiba and Akamaru to drop to the floor holding their ears.

"So we're all here huh, what a drag," said Shikamaru as he and his team walked up to the group. Shikamaru didn't change much either, his usual dark grey pants with a mesh shirt and a half grey vest with green trim. His headband tied around his left arm and his hair looking like a pineapple.

Choji walked in next to his best friend munching on a bag of chips, like usual. He still wore dark grey shorts with his tan shirt and kanji written on the front with a green jacket and white scarf. His headband looked like underwear on his head and he still had bandages wrapped around his arms and legs.

Hinata, who still wore her tan jacket with white fur around the bottom and dark blue pants, was rooted on the spot. She had walked in with Choji and Shikamaru just in time to hear Ino say that Naruto was her boyfriend and see her lean into him even more. Hinata continued to stare at Ino while picturing the most painful way to kill her and make Naruto hers. _'That little slut! I make her regret ever crossing me; Naruto-kun belongs to me!' _screamed Hinata in her head as she accidentally activated her Byakugan.

"You know you rookies should really keep in down, your drawing a lot of attention to yourselves," said a silver haired kid with glasses as he walked up to them.

"Who the hell are you?" asked Kiba while Akamaru growled slightly from his spot on Kiba's shoulder.

"Oh sorry, my name is Kabuto Yakushi I'm what you would call a veteran of these exams," said the now identified Kabuto. Naruto, catching on to the under lying meaning of what Kabuto said decided to speak up.

"So in other words you suck and you've failed these exams a lot." This made Kabuto almost face fault, the only thing keeping him up was his dignity.

"Yeah I guess you say it that way," said Kabuto while rubbing the back of his head. "Anyway, since you guys are rookies I'll give you guys a hand, you see I have information on everyone who's taking part in the exams. Just give me a name and I'll tell you everything I know about them."

"Give me everything you have on Gaara of the Desert from Sand, Rock Lee from Leaf and Naruto Uzumaki from Leaf," said Sasuke with his usual scowl deepening when he mentioned Naruto's name. Everyone else seemed slightly surprised that Sasuke asked for information on Naruto, he and his team may have change the appearance but how strong could they have really gotten?

"Alright, here they are," said Kabuto holding up three cards.

"Show me," it was more of an order than a statement.

"First we have Gaara of the Desert, his mission history is 25 D-rank missions, 8 C-rank missions and whoa a B-rank mission as a genin, impressive. His team mates are his siblings Temari and Kankuro of the Desert and his sensei is Baki of the Wind, I don't have much on his skills since he's from another country, but it seems he's returned from every mission without a scratch." Many of the Rookie Nine shuddered and made a mental note not to cross this kid. "Next is Rock Lee, he's a year older than you guys but this is his first time taking the exams, his mission history is 28 D-rank missions, and 10 C-rank missions. His sensei is Might Gai and his team mates are Neji Hyuuga and Tenten. His taijutsu has improved significantly over the past year but his genjutsu and ninjutsu is nonexistent." Sasuke's face darkened at that, _'I lost to someone who can't even use ninjutsu and genjutsu?' _"And lastly Naruto Uzumaki, his mission history is 15 D-rank missions, 10 C-rank missions and 1 A-rank, WHAT THE HELL?" screamed Kabuto when he read the information. Turning to look at team 7 he saw that all of them were looking at him with either suspicion or distrust. _'Crap, I need to lay low around them, their getting to suspicious.' _"Uhhh, his team mates are Ino Yamanaka and Kiba Inuzuka, I don't have much on his skills but if he and his team completed an A-rank mission then they must be strong," finished Kabuto before he put his cards away and left to return to his team before he caused any more suspicion in team 7. _'There becoming too suspicious, I'll have to send in that team Lord Orochimaru planted in the exams to finish them,' _he thought as he walked away.

"We need to be careful around him, he knows too much and most of that information was classified," whispered Naruto so only his team could hear him. "If the feeling I have about him is right, then he could be trouble later on." His team nodded in agreement, they had a feeling things were going to get very interesting during these exams.

Suddenly the doors at the front of the room were blown open and a deep blood chilling voice sounded from the dust cloud.

"ALRIGHT YOU BASTARDS SHUT UP AND PAY ATTENTION. My name is Ibiki Morino and I will be your proctor for the first part of the Chuunin Exams!"

**There you have it! Please don't flame me for this chapter, cause like I said I had some writer block with this one, so cut me some slack. Also please no more rants as reviews, constructive criticism is more then welcome, buts rants are , till next time.**

**BSW  
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	7. Chapter 7

**Hey everybody, my sincerest apologies for not updating in such a long time, but I have my reasons. Now hopefully their won't be many grammatical errors, but for those of you who are Language Arts freaks, please go easy as I don't study that in depth here at college. Also, Naruto will start to show a bit of his darker side in this chapter, along with Ino and Kiba.  
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**Hyrulian Hero Akai- I hope you enjoy this chapter, and let me know it i misspelled anything again.**

**Fox of the Blood Moon- Hope this chapter is a little more active for you, if not let me know.**

**R-Rated- Thank you, and after I went back and re-read that chapter it was a little clichee but it works.**

**Sang28- I felt it could have been more energetic, but I couldn't figure out a good way to it, so I just put what you saw in the last chapter. You'll have to wait just a little longer to see the project in action and see Sasuke's reaction. Hope I'm not torturing you with the anticipation for them.**

**crystal Coronello- I'm still trying to figure out how I want the invasion to go, but I'll keep that in mind.**

**LimaSCP- No Kushina is not alive, and won't be appearing in this story. My apologies to everyone who was hoping she would be in this, but I just couldn't think of way to stick her in. However I'm open to suggestions on how to incorporate her into the story. Just send me your idea via a review.**

**BattleCharger- I am not doing a harem for this story, I'm still new to fanfiction and I don't think I'm ready to try that out yet. However if this story goes for as long as I hope it will, I'll consider changing my mind. And if you want to know who's in the harem, I'll put a list of candidates on my profile that you all can choose from, however it will be a small one if do decide to do one. Two or Three at the MAX!  
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**Chapter 7- The Fun Begins**

"ALRIGHT YOU BASTARDS SHUT UP AND PAY ATTENTION. My name is Ibiki Morino and I will be your proctor for the first part of the Chuunin Exams!"

Out the dust cloud that had formed when the doors at the front were blown open stepped a tall man that had was followed by at least thirty chuunin.

The man in the front wore a similar outfit to the chuunin behind him, a grey cargo top with lots of pockets and grey pants that were wrapped in bandages at the ankles. They only difference between his outfit and the many chuunin was his large high-collared black trench coat and the position of his headband, which was tied on like a bandana around his presumably bald head.

Ibiki stepped forward and let his gaze sweep over the assembled genin. He gave himself a mental pat on the back when he noticed that almost all of them flinched in fear. Though there were exceptions. He noticed a Sand team didn't even look bothered when he looked at them, and that a Leaf team looked bored out of their minds. Taking a closer look at said team, Ibiki had to hold back a laugh when he recognized the descriptions that Kakashi had given him. _'So that's the famed team 7 I've been hearing about. Based on their appearance, it's safe to assume that Kakashi is letting them go all out in the exams. Which reminds me I'll have to talk to them about that supposed new torture method the Hokage told me about; well let's see how they do under pressure.' _Thought Ibiki before he returned to his attention to the reason he was here.

"Now as I said before, my name is Ibiki Morino and I will be proctoring the first exam. Now before we begin each of you will come forward and receive a number. This number will determine where you will be sitting throughout the duration of the written exam." Many of the genin present paled at this, and started running though whatever information they remembered from their academy days. _'A written exam, are you kidding me?' _thought team 7 as they looked straight at Ibiki as if to say 'seriously?' Noticing the stares from team 7, Ibiki just nodded slightly with an evil smirk on his face, which served to scare the other genin while just annoying team 7 at the same time.

It took about thirty minutes, but after everyone had received their number and moved to their respective seats. Ibiki stepped in front of the blackboard with his back to the assembled genin and started writing some things on it before turning to them with his patented death glare.

"The first exam consists of a ten question written exam that you will have one hour to complete. Now before we begin there are a few rules that you need to know about; first is that there will be absolutely no fighting without my permission and if you are aloud than there will be no killing at all. The second rule is that everyone will start out with a full ten points and for every incorrect answer you will lose a point. Third is that whether you pass or fail is based on your combined scores with your team mates, and if one of the members of your team gets a zero, your whole team will fail!" This caused many of the already shaky genin to want to drop out now. "The fourth and last rule is that anyone caught cheating by the sentinels will lose two points for every time there caught, which means if your caught five times you and your team will be failed immediately. Also the tenth question will not be given until there are fifteen minutes left in the exam."

'_Hmmm, not bad Ibiki, you live up to your reputation as the Mind Sadist. With the rules he's set up almost everyone present for a mental break down; giving them hope by started them out with a full score and then adding pressure to keep it with the point reduction. Add on more pressure with the combined score of our teams determining whether we pass or fail and most of the genin here are ready to quit and resort to anything to pass. Then you add the two point reduction for cheating and you have almost everybody mentally breaking down before the exam even begins. And knowing his reputation, the questions on this exam are probably so hard only the banshee, Shikamaru and I will be able to answer anything on our own.' _Thought Naruto as he looked around for where the other rookies were sitting. Ino was towards the middle near the edge with the sentinels, Kiba was towards the back with Akamaru on his shoulder still. The emo was on the opposite side of Ino's row near the other set of sentinels, the banshee was a few rows in front of Ino, and Shino was a few rows behind Sasuke. Hinata was sitting next to him with Shikamaru and Choji towards the very center.

"You have one hour to complete the test, BEGIN!" said Ibiki who was smirking at how the genin scrambled to turn over their test and get it over with. Like Naruto predicted, the questions were well beyond any genin. _'Something still doesn't feel right, even if he wants us to sweat and panic he can't give an impossible test that no one can pass. What am I missing?' _thought Naruto while he ran through everything Ibiki had said before realization dawned on him, _'He wants us to cheat, this isn't about the written test at all he's testing how well we can gather information in a hostile and pressuring environment.'_

Naruto smirked slightly before activating his Byakugan and scanning the room for anyone who had the answers he needed. After a few minutes he found a Leaf 'genin' who was answering the questions like it was nothing. He started copying his answers while letting a smirk cross his face when he saw how the others were doing. Ino was using one of her family's more advanced jutsu's that actually connected the users mind to the victims and allowed the user to use their victim's knowledge as their own.

Akamaru was looking around and telling Kiba the answers from the people around him. Sasuke, Hinata and Neji had activated their kekkei genkai's judging from the chakra in their eyes. Shikamaru was using his own natural intellect to answer the questions while using his clans Shadow jutsu to make Choji mimic his movements while he answered the questions. He notice Gaara was using his Sand abilities to create an eye that was linked to his optic nerves to get answers while Temari was doing what Shikamaru was doing and answering on her own. Kankuro had left with a sentinel a few minutes ago that didn't have a chakra signature; it was safe to assume the sentinel was his puppet in disguise.

Forty five minutes into the allotted hour time frame, over half of the genin who had entered the exams had been eliminated; roughly just over a hundred genin were left. Clearing his throat to get the remaining genin's attention, Ibiki let his dangerous smirk cross his face before he played his final card to reduce the number of genin that might pass.

"Listen up bastards, it's time for the tenth question, so listen up!" by now every genin was watching him carefully and a large number of them in fear. "Now before we begin there are a few more rules that are unique to the tenth question. First, you can choose whether or not to take the question, and should you choose to accept the question and get it wrong then…YOU WIlL BE BARRED FROM TAKING THE CHUUNIN EXAMS EVER AGAIN!" The room seemed to freeze with this revelation; you could probably hear a pin drop from a mile away the room was so quite. "Now those of you who wish to stop now and take the exams next year just raise your hands, your number will be recorded and you and your team will be allowed to leave." Nobody moved for a few minutes before someone finally cracked and dropped out; this seemed to release the flood gates, as one by one the participants dropped out. After about five minutes of people dropping out, no one was raising their hands and the remaining genin all had stony determination on their faces, _'Looks like no one else is dropping out, 51 left about what I expected but still surprising.' _"To those of you remaining there is only one thing left to do…and that is to tell you that you all have successfully passed the first part of the Chuunin Exams." Ibiki smiled a true smile that seemed out of place on his scarred face and made many of the genin shiver at the creepy sight.

Ibiki looked like he was about to say something else but before he could a black ball smashed through the window and unfurled revealing a banner saying 'The Super Sexy Proctor of the Second Exam Anko Mitarashi.' From the same window jumped a purple haired kunoichi who was wearing a very revealing outfit, a mesh shirt with a short orange skirt with a tan trench coat barely leaving anything to the imagination.

"Alright you maggots, don't think that just because you passed one measly little test means you're in the clear. You have twenty minutes to get to training ground 44 before the second exam starts. If you don't make it you fail then and there. MOVE!" screamed the now known Anko. Not willing to risk failing, or pissing off the scary kunoichi the room emptied the second she finished talking. "Well, I'll see you later Ibiki. Right now I've got some genin to mess with." With that she shunshin'd away with a sadistic smile on her face.

_Twenty minutes later- Training Ground 44_

Anko stood just outside of training ground 44, a.k.a the Forest of Death. She was showing a smirk that put Ibiki's to shame, but combined with the aura she was giving off all of the assembled genin were scared out of their minds, well almost all.

"So this is the famed Forest of Death; looks like fun," said Naruto so only his team could hear him. Ino, who was leaning into her boyfriend's chest, shook her head at his statement. Only her Naruto would say a giant forest obviously filled with deadly plants, animals and who knows what else would say it looked like fun. Kiba, who was chuckling next to his team mates with Akamaru by his side, couldn't help but comment on that.

"If it looks so fun, why don't you take Ino out on a date here after this is over?" he expected Naruto to laugh, or at the very least chuckle, instead he actually looked like he was seriously considering the option!

"Not a bad idea Kiba, I'll have to keep that in mind," said our favorite blonde, only to receive an elbow in the ribs from the blonde in his arms.

"Naruto Uzumaki if you even think of bringing me here for a date there will be no kissing between us for a month." Naruto got a panicked expression on his face when he heard this and immediately said he wouldn't bring her here. Anko decided at that moment to start the second exam, letting her smirk get a little more menacing she turned to face the assembled genin.

"Alright you maggots let's get started; behind me is training ground 44 also known as the Forest of Death." Sakura, who was standing towards the front of the group of genin, started shivering and mumbled something under her breath that only those near her and Naruto heard.

"It seems forehead is already shaken just from standing here, she won't last long in there," whispered Naruto to his team who chuckled slightly but nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, the scary 'Forest of Death,' please it looks more like a playground to me," said Kiba, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Ino would have doubled over laughing if it weren't for Naruto's arms around her. Said blonde was chuckling in a very evil and demonic manner that was scaring the hell out of everyone nearby.

Anko heard the comment and the reaction of team 7 and needless to say she was not happy. The killing intent she was letting off was causing many of the genin near her to lose control of their boules, or pass out from it, or both. She launched three kunai at the still laughing team 7 and shunshin'd behind them to have a little fun. What she wasn't counting on though was team 7 to turn her little plan against her.

Ino moved behind her and wrapped her right leg around Anko's right while holding a kunai to her spine. Kiba was beside her with his right arm around her left leg holding a kunai to her stomach with Akamaru on his back ready to attack. Naruto had unsealed Shinigami who had his right hand separate from his boy and tie up her torso and arms so they were behind her, he also his tanto pressed against her throat. Naruto was standing in front in the now trapped special jounin with the three kunai she threw at them in between his fingers with the tips dangerously close to her eyes.

"That wasn't a very wise decision proctor; had my team and I wanted to, you would be dead right now. We'll allow this one mishap to go by, but should you try a stunt like that again…it will not end well for you." As he finished Shinigami disappeared in a cloud of smoke while Ino and Kiba jumped away from the now twitching proctor. Anko shunshin'd back to the front of the assembled genin to continue with the explanation of the exam. What she didn't notice though was both Ino and Kiba slipping a white and brown scroll respectively, into their tool pouches.

"Your objective during this exam is to make it to the tower in the center of the forest within a five day time limit. However you will only be allowed to enter the tower once you have both a heaven scroll and an earth scroll." Anko reached into her pockets where the scrolls were only to discover them missing, sending a quick glare at team 7, she took both scrolls from one of the chuunin standing behind her and held them up for everyone to see. "Each team with be given either an earth scroll or a heaven scroll before the exam begins. Now before I forget, each of you will have to sign these waver forms stating that the Leaf village and more importantly me, are not responsible should you get injured or die while you're taking this exam." Once the forms were passed out, everyone seemed to realize just what they were getting into since most seemed too hesitate in signing the forms.

Team 7 signed their forms and went to get their scroll from the booth off to the side, followed shortly by the Sand Siblings. They got another earth scroll, while Naruto discreetly put a genjutsu on everyone present to make it seem like team 7 had walked away to find a gate to start at. The Sand Siblings exited the booth and noticed the real team 7 standing there waiting for them. Motioning for them to follow, Naruto lead the small group away from the rest of the genin, releasing the genjutsu once they were out of sight.

"What scroll did you guys get?" asked Naruto once they had reached two gates that were the farthest away from the still assembled crowd of genin.

"We got a heaven scroll, which one did you guys get?" asked Temari as she pulled out the scroll they were given. Naruto didn't answer, instead he took out the second earth scroll his team got and handed it to Gaara. Once he handed the scroll to his sister, Gaara turned to face his first friend with a look of understanding.

"Let me guess, you all took the scrolls from the proctor when you had her trapped didn't you?" he asked with a small smirk. Returning the smirk, Ino and Kiba pulled the scrolls they had taken from Anko earlier out of their pouches. "Very impressive, I look forward to seeing how much you've improve my friend." He put his hand out in front of him which Naruto took in his own and the two friends made a silent agreement to show the other what they were really capable of. Ten minutes later, Anko's voice was heard over the intercom.

"Alright you maggots the second part of the Chuunin Exams begins NOW!" No one hesitated, once the gates were open they all dived head first into the forest, determined to win.

_With Team 7_

Team 7 stood on a branch high above the ground planning their next move. They had split up from the Sand Siblings not long after they had entered the forest. Gaara said they would head for the tower, but not without having a little fun first.

"So Naruto, what's the plan? Are we going to the tower or are we going after the other teams?" asked Kiba who was petting Akamaru while keeping his enhanced senses alert for any possible threats.

"Neither, remember the lesson that Ibiki's test taught us. Knowledge is power and those that can acquire it the best will succeed in the end. We'll create some shadow clones and send them off to spy on some of the other teams while we spy on teams 8 and 10. Between mine and Kiba's senses and my Byakugan we should be able to find anyone we want," said Naruto getting nods of agreement from his team. Before he could say anything else though, he was interrupted by his blonde girlfriend.

"Naruto-kun, you told us you have the Byakugan and Sharingan but you never really told us how you got them. Since Kakashi-sensei's given us permission to go all out, it's safe to assume that you will be using them a lot more. Since we have a few minutes, could you please tell us exactly how you got them?" Kiba seemed to agree since he was looking at the leader of team 7 in Kakashi's absence. Sighing, Naruto knew his team mates wouldn't drop the subject until he answered them, so he prepared himself to tell them everything.

"Alright Ino-chan, your right; this could take a while so get comfy, but stay alert. I'll start with my Byakugan and Sharingan; before we started the academy I snuck into the Hokage's office and figured out who all was in our class. After I did, I sent Shadow Clones out to observe everyone, even you two, for a day. When they dispelled I learned a lot about everyone, but the last clone to dispel had a warning with it. That clone had followed Hinata and was spotted by her Hyuuga guard, who told a passing by Uchiha and they agreed to come and attack me. I managed to kill them, and with the help of Kurama I was able to transplant the specific strand of DNA that contained their kekkei genkai's into me." At this point he unsealed his Uchiha and Hyuuga puppets so his team mates could see them. "That's how I got my two dojutsu, but I have two more kekkei genkai's that are mine by birth. The first one was the famed Wood Style of the First Hokage and the second was the Water Style abilities of the Second. The First was my great-great-great grandfather while the Second was my great-great-great granduncle. I have almost mastered the Wood Style and have completely mastered the water control of my granduncle. Without these abilities I am about jounin level, but with them I am even stronger than old-man Hokage right now."

Ino and Kiba were silent, they always knew their team mate was powerful but never had they imagined that he was that powerful! His relation to the First and Second Hokage was a big enough shock, but learning that he could use the famed and feared Wood Style of the First and had the water control of the Second made both their brains shut down and reboot. Ino was the first to get out of her funk before she spoke to her boyfriend.

"Naruto-kun, I can understand why you didn't tell us before. But I am seriously glad you did before you were forced to use those abilities in front of us; if that had happened I would have thought I was under a genjutsu!" Kiba was still having trouble getting his jaw back in place, but he nodded in agreement with Ino's statement.

"Alright, enough about my past let's get moving." This seemed to pull them both the rest of the way out of their stupor and they nodded before they each made ten shadow clones and sent them to track the other teams. "We'll start with team 8, let's go."

Naruto was correct; between his and Kiba's sense of smell combined with Naruto's Byakugan they were able to find team 8 without much trouble and also managed to avoid being detected by Hinata's own Byakugan. They were currently crouching in the shadows of a tree branch near a clearing were team 8 was currently engaged with another Leaf team. From what they could tell, Shikamaru was the obvious brains behind the team, with his intellect it was hard not to. Choji was muscle of the team, his clan's expansion jutsu helped in that regard. Hinata was the obvious support, and if she could get over her shyness, the assassin of the team; hanging back telling Shikamaru what was going on around them and moving in close to finish the enemy if needed.

Naruto had his Sharingan activated and was committing everything about them and their fighting styles to memory. Shikamaru liked to hang back and outsmart his opponents with his strategies. Choji was a direct fighter, using strategy only when needed but relying mostly on his strength and clan jutsu in a fight. Hinata it seemed was to gentle for her own good, she preferred to try and disarm or neutralize an opponent instead of outright killing them. _'I don't even want to think of what would happen if she was ever truly in a life and death situation. Her thing for mercy will get her killed,' _thought Naruto before he signaled to his team that they were heading out to find their last target, team 10.

They found said team in much the same fashion they had team 8, the only difference being they weren't nearly as effective as a team together and they were facing the lone team from Sound. Sakura was hanging back throwing a kunai every now and then when an opening presented itself. Sasuke was fighting against a kid with black spiky hair that apparently had holes in his arms, while Shino was facing the other male who looked like a mummy.

_With Team 10 and Sound team_

"These guys are pathetic Dosu, why don't we just kill them and go after that other Leaf team? That blonde brat looked like he might actually pose a challenge," said Zaku as he dodged another punch from Sasuke.

'_Looks like we might have a fight on our hands,' _was the shared thought of team 7 as they observed the fight from a tree.

"For once Zaku's right, we should just end this and go after that other team," said Kin as she blocked another of the kunai Sakura threw at her.

"Your right, let's kill these three and find that blonde and his team," said Dosu while he pulled his right sleeve up and revealed his Melody Arm. He swung a punch at Shino who just barely got out of the way; his attempts were all in vain however as he dropped to the ground unconscious with his ears bleeding. "Finish them off and let's go." Zaku smirked before he blasted Sasuke into a tree and threw kunai intent on finishing the stuck up emo. Kin followed her team mate's example and let loose a hail of senbon towards Sakura, while the poor girl just stood there frozen out of fear.

The Sound team all turned to leave when they saw their attacks hit their marks, only to whirl around when they heard the small poof that signaled a substitution. Sasuke was no longer pined to a tree with multiple kunai in his body; in his place was a log that fell to the ground. Sakura was also replaced with a log that looked like it had been turned into a pincushion. There was no log or other object in the place Shino had fallen, his body had just disappeared seemly without a trace.

"What…" Zaku didn't get a chance to finish as he suddenly stopped moving with a glazed look in his eyes. Dosu looked at his team mate in confusion that quickly turned to fear when he saw Zaku draw two kunai and stab himself in both of his shoulders. He made no outward sign that he felt the pain of the injuries until his eyes seemed to clear and he dropped to the ground screaming in agony with a quickly growing pool of blood surrounding him. Dosu's attention was torn from the sight of his team mate writhing on the ground by the sounding of his other team mate's blood curdling scream. He turned just in time to get sprayed with a shower of blood and guts that had once belonged to Kin before she was literally shredded to pieces by what looked like two tornados.

In a panic, Dosu tried to make a run for it only end up face first into the ground with multiple senbon in his legs. He twisted his head to try and find his attackers only to come face to face with the very team they were ordered to eliminate. None looked even the slightest bit winded yet they had managed to quickly kill both of his team mates, if Zaku sudden silence was any indication, and effectively cripple him for life.

"I believe you and your team mates were looking for us, well here we are. What exactly is it you wanted with us?" asked Naruto who was twirling a kunai around looking bored. Dosu was about to refute until he thought back to his current predicament, bowing his head in shame he started talking.

"My team and I were sent to this village under the pretense of partaking in these exams. However our true purpose here was to eliminate any potentially strong Leaf genin, and to test the last Uchiha. We thought we were going to have it easy with this mission until you three showed up and killed my team mates." He spat the last part with as much hatred as he could directed at the blonde before him. Naruto had a look of concentration on his face, he could tell by the tone in his prisoner's voice and his body language that he wasn't lying. However he was missing one crucial piece of information, who had given them this mission?

"Ino-chan, he's withholding information, would you be kind of enough to rip it from his mind?" asked Naruto as he turned to look at his girlfriend, a twisted smirk on his face. Not the least bit fazed by the smirk her boyfriend had, and allowing a similar one to grace her lips, Ino walked over to their prisoner and while performing a few hand signs.

"It would be my pleasure sweetie, Mind Assimilation Jutsu," said Ino once she finished her hand signs. Her right hand erupted with blue chakra before she placed her hand on Dosu's head, and let it sink into his brain. Naruto noticed that while Ino was doing this, Dosu's eye rolled into the back of his head and his body well limp with his death; no one can survive having their mind exposed to an outside chakra source. Ino had told him the Yamanaka clan possessed jutsu that allowed them to retrieve any and all information from a victims mind, even if the target was already dead. Ino kept her hand inside the Sound genin's head for a few more seconds before pulling it out and watching as the body fell to the ground lifeless.

"What did you find Ino?" asked Kiba from his spot kneeling next to Naruto while petting Akamaru.

"You were right Naruto-kun, he was withholding quite a bit of information. It seems that the traitorous snake Orochimaru has created his own village, the Sound Village, somewhere in Rice country. It seems he is also planning an invasion of the village during the finals of the Chuunin Exams; he has two main goals with the invasion. The first and main goal is to destroy the Leaf village and kill anyone who opposes his will; his second goal is to kill his former sensei, the Third Hokage." When she finished, she turned to Naruto with a look of concern when she felt his spike in killing intent. Her boyfriend didn't have many people that truly cared for him, but those that did he treated like family. The Third was the first to acknowledge him and therefore the one he was closest to; anyone threatening the Third would soon realize it was suicide as they would first have to deal with a very angry Naruto.

"If that bastard tries to anything, I'll make sure I have his head on a platter. We're heading for the tower now; we need to inform the old man of this turn of events. But first how about we humiliate team 10 a little bit, Ino-chan would you be able to put some fake memories into their heads?" Ino's twisted smirk in his direction answered his question clearly.

"What would you like them to see?" asked Ino as she approached the still downed team 10 forming more hand signs. Her boyfriend's response of 'Be creative,' had her smirk becoming even more twisted, and had Kiba chuckling darkly while Akamaru barked his agreement. "How about us rescuing their sorry asses and killing the Sound team and leaving the scroll sitting in front of them just to spite them?" her idea was answered by the combined dark laughter of her team mates who couldn't wait for their next meeting with team 10. "Shifting Memory Jutsu." Once again Ino's hands erupted with blue chakra as she placed her hands on top of team 10's members one at a time. It took her a few minutes to finish but once she was, team 7 left the area after placing the Sound teams scroll in front of team 10 before leaving towards the tower.

**Well there you go everybody, let me know how I did. Again my apologies for not having this up sooner.**

**BSW**


	8. Chapter 8

**Well everybody I'm back, sorry about the long wait for this one but college has been really crazy lately, and now with finals approaching I probably won't be able to update for quite a while, I apologize in advance for this inconvenience. Now I think I should clear a few things up that just haven't been able to get into the story. First is Ino and Kiba's taijutsu styles, when I put in that neither were able to use their clans regular taijutsu was because of what I plan on them becoming later on in the story. (If you go back and look at what their styles are called, and can correctly guess what I will call them later on then you can choose one new person that WILL be in the Harem. Yes for those curious I have decided to make a harem, but it will have to fit a few criteria.) Ino like Hinata is more flexible and fluid making strict and strong stances almost impossible for them, and the only other Yamanaka's I have seen have all been male.  
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**Kiba is a little different though, while I like the Inuzuka style I feel that Kishimoto wasted a great opportunity at making the style as strong as it should be. He made it completely reliant on the Inuzuka dog partners to perform any of the jutsu to their fullest. So I gave him a new one that I think is what the Inuzuka style should have been.  
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**Now for the criteria for the Harem:  
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**1) ABSOLUTELY NO, AND I MEAN NOOOOO HINATA! (she just doesn't match up with a darker more sadistic Naruto)  
>2) You must choose from the list of possible candidates I have posted on my profile, and if you choose one with a side note, you must do what the side note says. Though I may pretty creative I am not by any measure or standards an actual writer so I will need some help.<br>3) As I stated previously, there will only be two or three members of the harem. Meaning that one slot is already taken by Ino, so you have two slots that you can fill. However the person who guesses team 7's correct future title (ex. Legendary Sannin trained by the Third) will have the full decision on ONE of the new members.  
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**Now to answer reviews (I was disappointed be the number of reviews for the last chapter, hopefully that will change after this one):  
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**Kitsune95: I suppose it is a little fast, I'll try and slow it down a bit.  
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**cardgamesgirl: Thank you for your support, its what makes want to continue writing this story.  
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**Sang28: Your encounters with Sand Siblings ideas, I hope you enjoy that scene. I thought it would be a nice little twist for once.  
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**Meteorthunder3: Thank you for the praise, and I agree that I might have given him some strong puppets a little to fast, but I needed to through a few things rather quickly so I could start getting to the meat and potatoes of what I have planned. Also I plan on increasing them to match Naruto later on after the prelims. Your idea for Kiba however is very interesting, if I can't fit it into this story I will try and do it in a future story. Also if your interested I would be happy to swap story ideas with you on a later date.  
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**Rain Shigu: I hope that your opinion of my story increases as we continue forward.  
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**Jerex: Your welcome.  
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**Chapter 8- The War has Begun**

"Hey Gaara, remind me again why the hell we're not just heading to the tower?" asked Kankuro as he and Temari followed their little brother deeper into the forest. He didn't understand Gaara logic in wanting to find someone to fight, they had both scrolls the proctor never said they had to get one in a fight or fight at all, just get both scrolls and make it to the tower within five days.

"Because Kankuro, Naruto and I promised to show each other how much we've improved. I can't exactly show him my full strength without a little warm-up now can I?" was the red heads only reply. Temari smirked slightly at this, only Gaara would go looking for a fight and claim it was a warm-up for a bigger fight later on. On second thought, Naruto probably would as well. While his sister smirked Kankuro shivered slightly, the power his brother and Naruto both wielded scared the crap out of him at times, add to that his brother claiming a fight to the death was a warm-up and he was pretty freaked.

They continue on moving through the trees until they felt a sudden spike of killing intent from somewhere. Stopping on a branch, Gaara had a look of understanding on his face while his siblings seemed confused. Kankuro, being the loud mouth of the Sand Siblings, broke the silence.

"What was that Gaara, you recognize something?" the Sand wielding shinobi nodded slightly before turning to face his siblings.

"Yes I did Kankuro, that killing intent belonged to Naruto. It would appear that our friend is a little angry at something, and judging from the increasing pressure on us, I'd say he's heading in this direction," Gaara said before preparing to continue moving when he noticed three chakra signatures below them. "We have company. How about we greet them properly?" with that Gaara launched a wave of sand towards the team below them.

_With Kabuto's team- Same Time_

"Kabuto, are you sure those three idiots can handle the task you gave them?" asked Yoroi Akado. He wore an outfit exactly like Kabuto's except with the addition of a purple mask that covered most of his face along with a pair of sunglasses.

"I have to agree with Yoroi on this one, those three idiots can't handle the simplest of missions. We should find them and show them how to do it properly,' said Misumi Tsurugi. Like his team mates he wore the same purple outfit and had a face mask similar to Yoroi's only he had regular glasses like Kabuto.

Turning to his team mates, Kabuto let the annoyance he felt about the two of them question his judgment on such a simple matter show on his face. When his partners didn't seem to notice his annoyance he spiked his killing intent slightly. This had the desired effect of shutting them both up catching their attention at the same time.

"Don't forget who you're talking to Yoroi, Misumi. I'm Lord Orochimaru's right hand for a reason, so unless you want to meet a quick and painful end or better yet be turned into one of my test subjects, I suggest you shut up." Yoroi and Misumi paled considerably at this. It was common knowledge that Orochimaru liked using people with rare abilities such as kekkei genkai's for his experiments. What wasn't so common however was that Orochimaru let Kabuto manage most of the experiments while he focused on furthering his plans and only participated in an experiment when it truly peeked his interest. The two of them each had a unique ability so it wouldn't be hard for Kabuto to convince their Lord to let him use them for some of his experiments.

The two were brought out of their thoughts when they sensed movement above them, a quick glance revealed that it was a wave of sand heading straight for them, they managed to avoid the wave of sand just before it could strike them. _'Shit, there's only one person in this exam that can control sand and that's the One-tail jinchuuriki. I was hoping to wait until the finals and kidnap him then, but it seems my plans might have to be moved up,' _thought Kabuto as he and his team tried to find the source of the attack.

"Who…" started Yoroi only to be interrupted by hundreds of senbon flying towards them. Jumping onto a nearby branch, Yoroi tried to find their attackers only to receive hundreds of cuts when a strong gale of wind hit him from behind. "Damn it, where the hell are they?" he screamed in frustration after dodging another blast of wind.

'_I'll let those two handle the Sand team while I check on those three morons to make sure they've completed their mission,' _thought Kabuto as he continued jumping towards the Sound teams last reported position.

_With Team 7_

"Hey guys, someone's heading in our direction," said Kiba as he and his team continued to make their way towards the tower, "Should we take care of them, or keep moving?"

"We'll keep mov…" said Naruto before the scent hit his nose as well. _'This scent, it's the same as that Kabuto guy from the first exam. He smells far too much of snakes for it to coincidence, he must be working with Orochimaru,' _thought Naruto stopping on a branch facing the way Kabuto's scent was coming from. He continued in a voice that was dripping with venom and just barely contained rage. "It's that Kabuto guy from the first exam. He knew too much classified information, and he smells strongly of snakes, there's no way that its coincidence, he must be working with Orochimaru."

"So what should we do about him, eliminate a threat or capture him for interrogation?" asked Ino while facing the same direction her boyfriend was. If she were honest with herself, she was somewhat scared of Naruto at the minute. He was barely containing his rage with the thoughts of Orochimaru trying to kill the Third in his head. If anything happened that caused him get any angrier then he already was, then there was no telling what he would do.

"Both," said Naruto earning him some confused looks from his team, "Ino-chan, Kiba and I will keep him busy while you prepare to use your Mind Link Jutsu. Once you've made the connection, copy every little detail you can get out of him, after you have what we need we'll leave him alone and continue to the tower to make our report. Kiba, go all out against him, if he's working with Orochimaru than he is a lot stronger then he's letting on. He'll be here in about ten seconds, get ready you two."

True to Naruto's prediction, Kabuto jumped into the open field below them not ten seconds after they finished planning. Kiba and Akamaru jumped down to meet him, with Naruto unsealing his Uchiha and Hyuuga puppets to fight with Kiba while he guarded Ino.

_With Kabuto_

'_Those idiots should be around here somewhere,' _thought Kabuto as he landed in the middle of clearing. "I guess Yoroi and Misumi might have been right for once, those three couldn't even handle a simple search and destroy mission. Oh well, better head back and check on my two useless team mates." He finished out loud, before he turned to head back towards the way he came.

Before he could take a single step however, he had to jump back to avoid a fire ball coming from above him. Looking up to find out who was attacking him, he inadvertently left himself open to an open palm strike to the chest that sent him crashing into a nearby tree. Gasping for breath Kabuto looked around wildly to try and find his assailant, only to go wide eyed when he noticed two jounin standing before him. Normally this wouldn't concern him, except for the fact that they were both Leaf jounin, and he was currently a spy. _'Could my cover have been blown?' _ran through his head as he continued to observe the two before him. Neither of them moved an inch, until they both sank into two _very _familiar taijutsu stances.

The one on the left didn't surprise him too much, though it did worry him. The jounin was wearing the standard green flak jacket of a high ranking Leaf shinobi; the rest of his attire however was that of a Hyuuga jounin. A white shirt with loose sleeves, closed on the right shoulder, with a fastener running down the right part of the chest, matching white loose pants, with a dark grey almost black sash tied around his waist and black shinobi sandals. He had long black hair pulled into a ponytail that reached the middle of his back with bangs that were kept out of his face by his black headband. His pale eyes had veins bulging around his temples, with a faint outline of a pupil showing in the center his eyes. As Kabuto continued to observe this opponent, a slight wind rustled the flak jacket he wore revealing an insignia etched into the fabric on his right shoulder. The insignia had a black and white yin-yang sign in the center of a circle made of the eight trigram symbols of nature around it. _'WHAT, a Hyuuga main family member, my cover most have been blown for one of them to be sent after me!' _thought Kabuto in slight alarm, before turning to observe his other opponent.

This one was slightly taller than the Hyuuga, and had a larger muscle mass compared to his partner. Like his partner he wore the standard Leaf jounin flak jacket; however unlike his partner he wore the complete standard jounin uniform for a Leaf shinobi. The plain baggy navy blue pants that were wrapped in white medical tape at the ends with navy blue sandals, along with a long sleeved navy blue shirt under his flak jacket. The only difference between his outfit and any regular jounin's was instead of the red swirls on each shoulder of the shirt, there were two Uchiha symbols inside of a lighter blue shuriken, the sign of the Uchiha's independent military force. The thing that caught Kabuto's attention though was the man's eyes. His irises were a terrifying blood red with three tomoe marks in a circle around the pupil. This man had the Sharingan. _'That's impossible, another living Uchiha? It was reported that they had all been killed in the massacre by Sasuke's brother Itachi. How can there be another living Uchiha if there aren't any records of them in the Hokage's files?'_ thought Kabuto as he tried frantically to figure out why there weren't any records of any other Uchiha surviving other than Sasuke.

Before he could think any further on the matter, he was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of feral voice before pain assaulted his back.

"Shredding Fang!" said Kiba before he started to spin at high speeds forming a miniature tornado-like bullet. He charged at the unsuspecting Kabuto from behind, only to tear through his clothes with ease and shred the skin on his back into little pieces. Stopping his spin a few feet away from the downed form of Kabuto, he inspected the extent of the injuries that resulted from his new attack. The skin on his back was completely torn apart the only sign of skin on his back were the few stands that were just dangling from his shoulders. He could see the muscle contorting and flexing in pain, as well as the small tissue that looked only slightly better than the skin or lack thereof on his back. _'I hope I didn't over do that, Ino said that the best information obtained from a target is when their alive,' _thought Kiba as he hoped that this guy wouldn't die until Ino had what she needed from him.

_With Ino and Naruto_

"You about ready Ino-chan?" asked Naruto as he directed his puppets to cut off any possible escape routes their target might try to use.

"Just about, give me a few seconds," said Ino as she concentrated her chakra for the jutsu she was about to perform. She was almost ready when she heard a blood curdling scream of pain from below them.

"Make it quick Ino-chan, I don't know how long that guy can survive after getting hit with Kiba's Shredding Fang," said Naruto after he heard the scream and checked to see what caused it. He had his Byakugan activated so he could get a better view of what was going on below them when his eyes suddenly became as wide as saucers. _'What the hell, his back is already healing and at a rate that could almost match mine with Kurama's help? Whoever this guy is, he's not going to be easy to kill.'_

"Ready, Naruto-kun; make sure he can't escape," said Ino as she launched her jutsu at Kabuto.

_With Kiba- Same Time_

'_Holy shit, is he healing himself?' _thought Kiba when he noticed the muscle and tissue start to grow back and mend themselves. The edges of where Kabuto's skin had been shredded away, started slowly inching their way towards the center of his back, closing the potentially mortal wound.

Kabuto turned to face Kiba and trying to figure out a strategy of how to deal with his current situation before his eyes glazed over and there was a small tickling sensation at the back of his mind for a split second. It happened so fast and so suddenly that unless you were looking for it you wouldn't have noticed it. Which unfortunately or fortunately, Kabuto didn't. Kiba on the other hand, did notice.

'_Nice timing Ino, now I just have to stall and wait for the signal from Naruto,' _thought Kiba before slipping into his new taijutsu stance. Unlike his clans regular taijutsu to revolves around the user taking on a more feral and animalistic approach by using their All-Fours Jutsu, this one didn't require the user to use the All-Fours and to just fight as they were, though they fought with a much more savage approach. His feet were shoulder length apart and bent at the knees ready to strike, with his left in front of his right. His left hand was level with his stomach and his fingers were flexed and ready to strike, while his right was next to the side of his head with his palm facing outward and fingers flexed. Akamaru took his place in front of Kiba, his body tense and lowered to the ground, ready to pounce.

"So a Hyuuga and an Uchiha jounin, and an Inuzuka genin, what the hell kind of team is that?" asked Kabuto as he tried to buy himself some time to completely heal and inadvertently Ino more time to assimilate his knowledge. He looked towards the Hyuuga and Uchiha thinking one of them would respond as the captain of the team, but neither of them said a word. They didn't even acknowledge his presence; instead the young Inuzuka was the one to answer.

"That's none your business. What I want to know is who the hell you are, and what you're doing in our village?" said Kiba hoping to get a few answers himself.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, I'm just a simple genin trying to pass these exams and become a chuunin like everyone else in this forest," lied Kabuto smoothly, hoping to through them off track. It didn't work.

"Cut the crap you bastard, who are you really?" asked Kiba with a lot more venom this time. Seeing that his cover was probably already blown, Kabuto decided to stall them a little longer for his healing to finish.

"Find, you caught me; I was sent by my lord to infiltrate these exams and to eliminate any poten…" he never got the chance to finish because at that moment his eyes glazed over again and he fell to the ground unconscious.

"Nice timing Ino, I was just about to get some answers myself and then you had to go and ruin my fun," said Kiba as he pouted. Akamaru just let out a dog sigh and shook his head at his partner's antics.

"Knock it off Kiba, this is not the time for you stupid games," said Naruto in a deadly voice, not bothering at all to try and hide his annoyance at his team mates attitude towards the current situation. It seemed to work as Kiba visibly flinched and dropped the pouting act. "Ino-chan, what did you manage to get out of him?" he asked turning to his fellow blonde.

"A lot of useful information, but we don't have time discuss it here. I'll tell you everything I got when we reach the tower and can speak in much more secure environment," said Ino as she held her head lightly from all of the new information and knowledge she had received. "What should we do about him? When he wakes up he'll no doubt tell Orochimaru about the encounter and they might change their plan of attack, making part of what I got from him useless."

"Good point, but I have a way around that. I had a few shadow clones scout for his team mates and they found them in a fight with the Sand Siblings. It told them of our suspicions and convinced them to just knock them out and bring them here," said Naruto as his two team mates nodded in understanding. "Speak of the devil, here they come." He said to himself as he turned to face the approaching Sand team that was accompanied by two shinobi wrapped in sand and unconscious.

"So this is the third member that managed to get away from us, and you believe them to be spies in the exam?" asked Gaara as he released his two prisoners and let them fall next to their downed team mate.

"We have confirmation that they are spies in the exam, Ino-chan here used one her clans jutsu to get the information out of his head," said Naruto as he gestured to Ino a small proud smile on his lips. No matter how angry or upset he might have been, the thought of his girlfriend always brought a smile to his lips. Ino had the decency to blush slightly at the praise her boyfriend was giving her.

"So what are we going to do with these three, I think we should just kill them and get rid of future threats in the process," said Kankuro as he directed his puppet, Crow, into position to kill the three prone figures. Naruto glanced at Temari, a question on his face. Nodding in understanding, Temari raised her fan and brought down across her little brothers head. "OWWW, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR TEMARI?"

"For being a complete idiot," began Temari, "if we kill them now then whoever their superior is will no doubt alter his plans to compensate for the loss of a few of his spies. If that were to happen, then the information Ino has now would be completely and utterly useless." This didn't seem to make any sense in the dense mind that was Kankuro and he looked ready to argue until Temari raised her fan to hit him again and he quickly nodded his agreement. "That still doesn't answer the question of what we do now, when they wake up they'll no doubt report this encounter to their higher ups and they might alter their plans as a precaution in case we managed to get any information out of them without their knowledge."

"Ino-chan," said Naruto turning to look at his girlfriend. She nodded in understanding and began to go through a series of hand signs before her right hand ignited with blue chakra. "Give them something that won't give away too much. Remove Kabuto's memory of his encounter with us and replace it with one with him and his team mates fighting our friends from Sand." He said as Ino placed her hand on Kabuto's head and began to alter his memories of what happened. She repeated the process with his team mates and gave them a similar memory so they didn't conflict with one another and raise suspicion among the group.

"It's done Naruto-kun, Kabuto won't remember meeting us and he and his team will believe that they had a fight with Gaara, Temari and Kankuro and managed to escape them," she said as she stood up from her kneeling position. Nodding his head, Naruto turned to his first true friend with a small smile tugging at his lips as memories of their first encounter began to surface.

"Gaara, given the recent development I think it would be wise if all of us stayed together until we reach the tower. What do you say, you mind hanging around with a couple a Leaf shinobi for a little longer?" he asked with his smile growing a little bit towards the end of his question. Returning the smile, Gaara answered his friend's question.

"It might be a little hard to be around Leaf shinobi that long, but I think my siblings and I can manage."

"Alright then, Ino-chan, Kiba, let's get going. We need to report what have learned to the Hokage as soon as possible." With that said the six chuunin hopefuls started running towards the center of the forest, hoping that they were able to inform the Hokage soon enough as to be able to stop Orochimaru's plans.

_Central Tower- 2 hours later_

Hiruzen Sarutobi, Third Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, and known throughout the shinobi world as 'The Professor' and 'God of Shinobi' was currently engaged in a heated battle the likes of which he had never faced before. He had fought under the personal command of the Second Hokage in the First Shinobi World War, he lead his village to victory as the Third Hokage during the Second Shinobi World War, and he lead the first assault against the Nine-tailed Fox when it attacked the village thirteen years ago. Even with all his years of experience, knowledge and skill on the battle field, this lone foe was pushing him to his very limit. Before him was the embodiment of evil, the bringer of death and the foulest thing known to the shinobi world: paperwork.

He was sitting behind his desk in his secondary office in the central tower inside the Forest of Death. Before the start of the second exam, he and a unit of twelve Anbu had made their way through the forest and to the tower, as it was customary for the Hokage to be the one to greet those who passed this part of the exam once it had completed. He was looking over different request forms that had been submitted to him about a week ago. _'Damn you Minato, you just had to go get yourself killed and leave me to deal with all this crap. How you ever found time to do half the things you did while you were Hokage I'll never know,' _thought the old warrior as he continued going over forms. _'Request from the civilian council to have Naruto executed: Denied. Request from the civilian council to have Naruto banished: Denied. Request from the civilian council to be given complete control over the Academy: Denied. I need to remember to remove the control they have as they have no right to meddle in the affairs of shinobi. Request from Jiraiya to make all hot springs mixed bathing: Hmmmm.' _Sarutobi was about to reach for the approved stamp when there was a knock on his door. This served to cause him to over reach and grab the 'Denied' stamp before stamping the document. Looking at what he had just done, Hiruzen began crying with anime tears running down his face. _'Damn it, I swear if whoever is at the door doesn't have a damn good reason to be interrupting me I'm gonna…' _his thoughts were cut short when the door opened to reveal his surrogate grandson along with the rest of team 7 entering his office.

"Naruto, so you already finished the exam, quite an impressive feat for a rookie genin team," said Sarutobi with a proud smile towards team 7, all thought of his previous anger gone. His proud face however was replaced with that a battle hardened shinobi when he saw the looks on the faces of team 7 and more specifically Naruto. Ino and Kiba's faces were stony, their bodies tense as if expecting an attack at any second. Naruto's face however seemed to be a blank mask of emotion, his eyes however told a different story. His usual calm, sapphire eyes had darkened with so much repressed rage that they now resembled the darkest pits of the ocean. "What's happened?" he knew that the only thing that gets Naruto this angry was when someone that was precious to him was threatened.

"Orochimaru," was the only answer he got out of the blonde. The second the name left the young blondes lips the aged kage knew exactly what had put the blonde in such a state. He remembered vividly when his former student had left the village that he had vowed to one day return to destroy the village and more importantly kill him.

"I see," said the Third as he collected his thoughts, "What do you know about his presence in the village?" To most people it would seem pointless to be asking a genin team such a question; however to those that were higher up in the chain of command or just had plain common sense would be able to understand why he was asking such as question. When he had first designed the teams, the civilian council had tried to pressure him into placing the genin into the teams that they believed were the best. They had originally wanted Naruto to be with the Uchiha and the Haruno under Kakashi, so that Kakashi would train Sasuke to use his Sharingan and to one day kill Naruto. They had also tried to form a completely tracking based squad with Kiba, Hinata, and Shino as well as recreating the Ino-Shika-Cho formation. However, since he was no longer taking shit from the council he had ignored them and formed the teams to be mostly balanced. The Aburame, Hyuuga, and Inuzuka individually were each an expert at the art of tracking so by placing one into each of the new teams would give all three an edge finding any target. He had placed the Haruno and Uchiha with the Aburame because he just didn't care about the two of them; they were both pretty much useless in regards to being shinobi. Though temping, the recreation of the Ino-Shika-Cho formation would be almost impossible with this new generation. Originally Ino had been too much of a fan girl, but that had changed since she joined team 7. Shikamaru was lazy as hell, even among his clansmen, and Choji, though he needed to eat a lot, was too focused on food to train properly. So he had placed Ino with Naruto and Kiba, because this team alone could take on multiple types of mission with a higher chance of survival and completion. Kiba could not only act as a tracker but an excellent combat type, while Ino had the potential to become a medic and genjutsu user for support and with her clan jutsu an excellent interrogator. Naruto however was the wild card, with his puppets he was an excellent long range fighter, add in his pranking abilities and you have an excellent trap master, factor in his insane chakra capacity and stamina and you have a ninjutsu and taijutsu specialist as well, all in all he was a well-rounded and incredibly versatile shinobi.

"Lord Hokage, while we were in the forest we came across team 10 fighting a team from the new Sound village. After team 10 was about to be killed we intervened and eliminated two of the three members and crippled the third before we started questioning him. We felt he was withholding information however so I used my clans Mind Assimilation Jutsu to get the information directly from his mind." The Hokage inwardly flinched, he remembered watching Inoichi use that jutsu once and the effects it had on the victim. "While I confirmed what he told us before was the truth, he had also left out some very crucial details that you should know about. Orochimaru has created his own village, the Sound village, somewhere in Rice Country, and he had assigned the team will killed the task of eliminating any potentially powerful Leaf genin and to test the Uchiha. He also plans on invading the village during the Chuunin Exam Finals. He hopes to accomplish two things with this invasion; the first is to destroy the Leaf village and the second," here Ino paused as she felt the slight increase in killing intent coming from her boyfriend. Kiba and the Hokage seemed to notice this as well and one hoped that Orochimaru didn't accomplish his goal, while the other now knew what had set Naruto this way. Shaking her head slightly, Ino continued where she left off, "The second goal of his invasion is to kill you, Lord Hokage."

A pregnant pause followed Ino's report which wasn't help at all by the feeling of Naruto's killing intent rolling of him in waves. After a few minutes of contemplating what he had just been told, Sarutobi looked at the genin team before him with a warm grandfatherly smile on his face. It seemed to have an immediate effect as the killing intent coming from the lone male blonde in the room stopped allowing his team mates to relax slightly.

"Now Naruto, I know that you care for me as I care for you but scaring your team mates with so much killing intent won't help us out in this situation." Naruto had the decency to look a little sheepish at that remark, while Ino moved and wrapped her arms around her boyfriend from behind. "Now, is there anything else that you managed to get?" and for the next two hours Ino, with some input from Naruto and Kiba, told the Third everything she had gotten out of Kabuto. Well almost everything, she did leave out the information about all of the experiments, projects and jutsu that Kabuto knew and had been a part of.

After team 7 had been dismissed, with orders not to reveal anything they learn of in the forest to anyone, Sarutobi sat back and contemplated his choices. From the information Ino had gotten out of Kabuto, they knew almost Orochimaru's entire plan and how he planned to attack the village and get close enough to kill him. Orochimaru planned to kill the Kazekage as he made the journey to the Leaf for the finals and take his place. He had already taken measures to prevent this by means of the fastest messenger monkey he had, he should hopefully have a response within twenty hours. _'Now all that's left to do is to call back all patrols around the village and take more drastic security measures, though not enough to catch Orochimaru's attention. It seems that once again, a war has begun.' _With that thought, Sarutobi called for an emergency meeting with all chuunin and above in the war room at the Hokage Tower for that night.

**There you have it people, hope you enjoyed it almost as much as I did writing it. Now anyone who wants to take a guess at the future title of team 7 needs to submit it to me by either a REVIEW or PRIVATE MESSAGE! Well until next time.**

**BSW  
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	9. Chapter 9

**Hey everybody, hope I didn't keep you guys waiting to long this time. I have decided on the second girl in Naruto's small harem and there was a clue, though and unintended one, in a previous chapter. This was the only way I could think of to add her in, so if you think it was way to fast or I could have improved on it somehow let me know in a review or message, but please not flames.  
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**Slifer1988- thanks for the suggestions, I was really considering using one of those scenarios to add her, but I haven't decided yet. Also don't worry about the stronger puppets, I have an idea I am considering to use to get around that little snag.  
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**Tsukuyomi-chan- Thank you for that, I was beginning to think no one found any of the other ideas interesting. I have been tinkering with a way to start one of them and I think you'll like it, let me know what you think when I post it. And thank you for the review.  
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**WolfCoyote- If you could try and narrow your choice for the harem down a little bit that would help a lot. Also your idea for adding her in is actually very intriguing, it would add in some much needed drama and suspense that I feel my story has lacked for a while thought I hope this chapter helps creates a little bit.  
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**Meteorthunder3- Alright my friend, but don't sell yourself short, I am by no means a good writer, I just write what I feel would work and try and mold something out of it.  
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**alchemists19- Here's a little bit more.  
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**ForgottenKami- Thank you for your suggestions, though I regret to say that Kurenai won't be a part of it. I recently came up with a little plan that involves her and few other people, but it's still in the experimental stage so I may or not do it, we'll just have to see.**

** Kitsune95- Thank you for your praise and here you go!  
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**Sang28- Thank you my friend, also I couldn't think of a good way to write in that scene so I just kind of passed it by, sorry if you wanted me to do that. Also your guess was pretty close to what I came up with, try again with this little hint(anyone reading this came use it): think about their taijutsu styles and what their called then tweak your name slightly and you should be able to get it.  
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**Hopelesslyhope- Welcome to my story I hope your enjoying yourself so far.  
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**Gstar391- Thank you for your reviews keep them coming.  
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**Milanord- Thank you for your suggestions.  
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**Chapter 9- The Prelims Begin  
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_Hokage Tower- War Room_

Sarutobi stood at the front of the war room in the Hokage's Tower with almost every chuunin and above shinobi standing before him all with stony faces. They knew what a meeting of this caliber meant, it meant that war was about to come to their village and they would be called upon to defend it.

"As I'm sure most of you are aware, the reason behind this meeting is indeed war. I have been informed by a very reliable source that Orochimaru has infiltrated the village." Murmurs brook out in pockets around the room at this revelation, but Hiruzen put a stop to them by raising his hand signaling for silence. "We have discovered his plans for invading the village, and I have already begun to make preparations for his attack. He plans to kill the Kazekage as he is journeying from his village for the chuunin finals and to impersonate him giving him better access to kill me. I have already sent a message to the Kazekage warning him of this; now all that's left to do is to prepare our own village for the invasion. This information will be kept from the civilians as it would induce panic and let Orochimaru know we are aware of his plans. For now we will go about our normal lives in the village, I will call another meeting when we have decided on a plan of action to counter Orochimaru's invasion," said Sarutobi as he watched the room slowly empty as his shinobi left, each already planning how best they could defend their village. _'Once again I will be leading my village to war, I'm getting too old for this shit,' _thought Sarutobi as he made his way back to the forest of death.

_With Team 7- Same Time_

"Well now that that's taken care of, what do you guys want to do?" asked Kiba as he and his team mates walked aimlessly around the tower. He glanced at his blonde companions only to see Ino deep in thought with a slight frown on her face. "Hey you ok Ino?" this seemed to bring the girl out of her funk as she turned to look at her team mates with a serious look on her face.

"I'm fine; I was just going through everything I learned from that Kabuto guy. We told the Hokage everything involving the invasion, but that was only the tip of the iceberg from what I got out of him. Let's go to our rooms and I'll tell you everything I got out of him." Nodding in agreement, the two males of team 7 followed her to in the direction of their rooms. When they arrived, Naruto applied some privacy and silencing seals to every wall, window door in the room. Turning to his girlfriend, Naruto motioned for her to begin. "Well it seems Kabuto is a very skilled medical ninja, and from what I've read about her, he could even rival Tsunade Senju in some ways. With the knowledge I got out of him and enough training I could be at his level of expertise in the medical field in about a month or so." This caused Kiba's eyebrows to rise in surprise while Naruto thought this could really help them in the future; yes he knew medical ninjutsu, but not to the extent that Ino was referring to. "Also it seems that he is heavily involved in most, if not all of Orochimaru's experiments. While most people would see half of what they are trying to do with these experiments as inhumane, a lot of them could be of great value if they were to succeed. A couple of the more successful ones have involved recreating certain kekkei genkai's or transplanting a kekkei genkai into a new person. Similar to what you did with your Sharingan and Byakugan Naruto-kun."

Looking at her team mates Ino noticed that Kiba was slightly slack jawed at the revelation, while Naruto appeared deep in thought. Deciding to let them process what they just heard, she started going through the knowledge she got from Kabuto again, seeing if there was anything else she could use.

'_Hey Kurama, what do you think about all of this?' _asked Naruto while he continued going over what Ino had told them. _**'Personally I like the sound of it, messing with a humans DNA is one of the best ways we bijuu use to rid us of our boredom. That's actually how the Uchiha Sharingan came to be; I created it and placed it into the founder of the clan when I was bored a couple millennium ago,' **_came the demonic reply from his tenant. This caused Naruto to raise an eyebrow, the Sharingan; one of the most feared kekkei genkai in the world only exists because a demonic fox was bored? _'Ok then, well I think Orochimaru was on to something when he started these experiments; though his obsession with making himself immortal clouded him from seeing the world changing possibilities these experiments, if they were successful, could bring about. Once these exams are over, we'll have to look into these experiments,' _thought Naruto before he came back to reality to see Kiba still slack jawed, while Ino was giving Kiba an annoyed look.

"You're right Ino-chan," started Naruto catching his girlfriend's attention and managing to break Kiba out of his stupor, "These experiments hold some very valuable possibilities, possibilities that we can't afford to let pass by. Once the exams are over, hopefully Orochimaru will be either dead and we can get some information from his corpse, or the village can somehow capture him and we can rip the knowledge from his mind," said Naruto while his team mates nodded in understanding. "For now let's just focus on passing the exams and becoming chuunin, we can deal with this afterwards." With that Naruto left with Kiba to their room while Ino sat down and began practicing with her newly acquired knowledge of medical ninjutsu.

_Central Arena- Four days later_

Team 7 stood in the center of the center arena in the tower with the other teams who managed to pass the second exam. Team's 8 and 10 were there along with team Guy, the Sand Siblings, and Kabuto's team, before them stood the Hokage, dressed in his formal robes, along with the jounin senseis of the passing teams, Anko, Ibiki, and a sickly looking jounin with a sword strapped to his back. Behind the line of jounin's was a statue of two hands forming the ram hand seal and to the surprise of everyone the heads of every major clan in the Leaf village were present as well.

'_I wonder why the clan heads are here?_' thought Naruto before looking at Gaara out of the corner of his eye noticing that Gaara was looking at him as well, nodding slightly to each other, they had the same thought before turning back to face the front, _'No holding back.'_ The clearing of a throat brought their attention back to the people standing before them as Anko stepped forward to speak.

"Well I guess congratulations are in order, most jounin have trouble surviving that forest. Now since so many of you managed to pass the second exam, we'll have to hold a preliminary round before we move to the final exam." Not surprisingly, it was Kankuro who was the first to respond.

"Preliminary? That's crap, why the hell do we need one anyway?" shouted a clearly annoyed Kankuro while Temari had her head down in embarrassment.

"Simple brat, we didn't think that this many of you would survive the second exam. Since there will be some very important political figures coming to watch the finals, we don't want to waste their time. So to cut the number of matches down, we'll hold a preliminary to weed out the weaklings who only managed to get by because of their team mates effort. Also from this point on your on your own, there are no teams, and you could end up fighting one of your team mates during these matches," said Anko with a twisted smirk on her face unsettling some of the genin present. "Now let's get started shall we." With that she said something into the headset she was wearing and a panel on the wall moved away to reveal a screen with names scrolling across it. Everyone held their breath as they waited to find out who would be up first, well almost everyone.

'_What the hell is going on? According to the information I gathered whenever a preliminary is held, they always offer the competitors a choice to drop out if they want, could they have changed it?' _thought a slightly panicked Kabuto. _'I guess I'll just have to forfeit my match whenever it comes around, I can't reveal my abilities yet.'_ He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard the screen beep slightly indicating that the first match had been decided.

"Will Temari of the Desert and Sakura Haruno please stay down here for the first match; the rest of you move to observation platforms," said the sickly jounin after he introduced himself as Hayate Gekko. Everyone started moving towards the observation platforms while Temari and Sakura stayed put. As he passed her, Naruto put a hand on Temari's shoulder before he whispered in her ear.

"She's pathetic don't go all out; and just so you know once I claim my heritage I'll be forced into the Clan Restoration Act. Don't think I didn't see your blush when you hugged me in that alley, Ino already knows that I will go under the act though she doesn't know for what reason. If you're interested the offer is there Temari-chan," said Naruto before he gave her a quick peck on the cheek before moving to join his team mates. Ino and Kiba were looking at him in understanding, he told them during the days before the prelims that he would be forced under the restoration act. Ino had originally blown her lid and was ready to go and kill the elders since they would be the ones to enforce it. It took Naruto using Kouken, his defensive puppet to block all of the exits and kissing Ino long and hard to get her to cool down and not go on a killing spree.

Temari couldn't believe what she was hearing, the boy she had had a slight crush on ever since they first met wanted her to be one of his wives. She was about to smack him with her fan thinking he was just making fun of her until she felt him kiss her cheek. That little peck her shut her genius brain down and forced her to reboot before the biggest smile anyone had ever seen appeared on her face. She was brought out of her daydreaming when she heard the proctor clear his throat again.

"Now before we begin the first match, let me explain the rules. There are none, the match goes until either I call it, someone is knocked unconscious or one of the competitors dies. No one is allowed to forfeit, understand?" getting a confident nod from Temari and a hesitant one from Sakura, Hayate swung his hand down before shouting "Begin!"

Remembering what Naruto told her, Temari charged at Sakura with her fan in hand. Before the pink haired banshee could react she was nailed in the head with Temari's fan, knocking her out instantly. Smirking, she waited while Hayate checked Sakura and found her unconscious before addressing everyone watching.

"Winner: Temari of the Desert," he said before Temari made her way up to her brothers and team 7 to be greeted by the sight of her brothers smiling at her and Naruto giving her a hug.

"So Temari-chan, do you except?" he whispered while he hugged her. A small smile graced her lips before she whispered back.

"Of course you fool, I'll be one of your wives." Naruto couldn't help the smile that formed on his lips when he heard that. Pulling back he gave her a quick peck on the lips which promised many more to come and went to stand with his team, leaving a beaming and blushing Temari to deal with her brothers teasing.

"Now for the second match will Rock Lee and Choji Akimichi please come down?" said Hayate after the screen had stopped moving.

"YOSH, IT'S FINALLY MY TURN; I WILL PROVE THAT MY FLAMES OF YOUTH BURN AS BRIGHT AS EVER!" screamed Lee before jumping down to the arena floor. "WATCH ME GUY-SENSEI; I WILL PROVE TO THE WORLD THE POWER OF YOUTH!" he yelled before striking his 'nice guy' pose complete with sparkling teeth.

"GO LEE, SHOW THE WORLD YOUR FLAMES OF YOUTH!" screamed the original prototype for spandex wearing, bowl haired shinobi. Choji was freaking out as he walked down to the arena for his match, _'This guy is insane,' _running through his and everybody's heads, except for one.

'_Huh, did someone say something?' _thought the cycloptic jounin of team 7.

"Are you both ready?" asked Hayate once Choji was standing across from Lee. Getting another nice guy pose from Lee and a scared nod from Choji, Hayate brought his arm down before shouting "Begin!" and jumping as far away from the spandex shinobi model version two.

Wanting to make sure he didn't have to see that disturbing pose again, Choji went through the hand signs for his clan's jutsu at a speed that surprised even him.

"Expansion Jutsu: Human Boulder!" said Choji before his stomach expanded making him look like a human meatball. Retracting his head and limbs inside himself, he began rotating at surprising speeds before charging at Lee, who had assumed his Iron Fist Style taijutsu stance. Lee waited until Choji was almost within range before he made his move. Jumping over the ball form of Choji, Lee spun on his left foot and delivered a fierce roundhouse to the still spinning Choji. Because of the kick, Choji was sent crashing into the wall before he reverted back to his normal size with his eyes spinning. "Did anybody get the number of that bus?" he asked before he fell forward on the ground and started snoring.

Hayate simply raised an eyebrow at the apparently sleeping form of Choji before he broke out in a coughing fit. Getting his cough under control, he turned to address the crowd, while Lee was still in his taijutsu stance waiting for the match to continue.

"Winner: Rock Lee." Guy didn't give Hayate a chance to continue as he jumped down to congratulate his clone.

"WELL DONE LEE, YOUR FLAMES OF YOUTH BURN BRIGHTER THEN THE SUN! I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!"

Yelled Guy with anime tears streaming down his face.

"GUY-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GUY-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

What followed next would haunt the nightmares of every person in that arena for the rest of their lives. In front of them were Guy and Lee hugging each other with the lethal, S-ranked sunset genjutsu behind them.

"Ahhhhh my eyes, make it stop, make it stop!" screamed Kankuro with his hands over his eyes as he tried to get the image that had burned itself into his head out. Everyone was having similar thoughts or reactions as Kankuro, while Naruto, Kurenai and the other jounin tried to stop the lethal jutsu.

They were all brought out of there panic when they heard the screen start going through names again. This time it seemed that the screen couldn't decide and kept going and going, increasing everyone's anxiety levels and making them started to relive the endless sunset genjutsu; until it finally settled on the next two fighters.

"Will Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame please come down here," said Hayate after shaking off the lingering effects of that genjutsu.

"Alright, it's about time that Akamaru and I got to show case our skills," said Kiba before he jumped over the railing and onto the floor with Akamaru following his lead. Shino however decided to calmly walk down to the arena floor, in true Aburame fashion.

'_Alright pup, now's your chance to show me what you've learned,' _thought Tsume Inuzuka, Kiba's mother, while her counterpart Kuromaru watched the matches with his lone eye.

'_This match will be interesting, an Aburame and Inuzuka going head to head in a fight. There is no telling what the outcome of this match will be, though I have a hunch that Kiba will win since his team is so relaxed about the fight,' _thought the Hokage while he glanced between Kiba and the rest of team 7, who all had relaxed postures and smirks on their faces. _'Definitely, they've got something up their sleeves.'_

"Both fighters ready?" asked Hayate getting two nods in return, "Then let the third match, begin!" he said before jumping out of the way, knowing how Inuzuka's liked to fight.

To the surprise of everyone, except his team, Kiba didn't charge head first into the fight like he did in the academy. Instead he had a look similar to an Aburame's emotionless and calculating, this unsettled many of the other genin and Leaf shinobi who knew Kiba. The one that looked the most freaked out though, was Tsume herself. _'What the hell is going on, he isn't charging headlong into a fight? What the hell happened to my son, he's completely different then he was when he graduated the academy,' _thought Tsume as a panicked and worried expression took over her face.

"You have changed Kiba-san, in the academy you would have just charged in blindly," said Shino voicing everyone's thought. Though he would never show it, Shino was extremely freaked out. Ever since they graduated from the academy, his bugs would start going haywire whenever team 7 was around, telling him to run and stay away from them. _'This is not good; my insects are acting up more than normal around team 7. Could it be that they have been hiding their true selves from everyone?' _thought Shino as he continued to stare down the out of character Inuzuka.

"Kiba," said the voice of Kakashi, catching everyone's attention, "Don't worry about revealing too much, I have already given you permission to show your true abilities. It is time that team 7 showed its true capabilities," said the cycloptic jounin causing everyone to go wide eyed, except for the Sand Siblings.

"Hehe, thanks for the reminder sensei, though I was just trying to decide on the best method to go about this fight; Aburame's aren't to be taken lightly," said Kiba in a serious tone causing man jaws to hit the floor. Nodding to himself Kiba slipped into his new taijutsu stance, confusing everyone but team 7. Tsume had a look of concentration on her face as she studied the stance her son had taken, _'Where have I seen that stance before? Let's see, feet shoulder length apart, knees bent, left hand level with stomach, and right facing away from his head…IT CAN'T BE THAT SHOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE!' _thought a shocked Tsume as she starred at her son with awe. Hiashi, who had his Byakugan active watching the match from every angle, noticed the awed look on his fellow clan head and tried to get some answers.

"Tsume-san, do you know what that stance young Kiba has taken is?" asked the Hyuuga head as everyone who heard the question turned to look at Tsume for answers.

"That stance is the opening stance for the fiercest and most devastating taijutsu style known to our clan. The founder of our clan was said to be the only one who was capable of using it. From what we can gather, his sons and daughters weren't able to use his style and had to adapt a different style so they could work with their counterparts, this gave birth to the All-Fours jutsu our clan uses. For Kiba to be able use our founder's style is just amazing," said Tsume who never took her eyes off her son, her astonishment clear in her voice. Everyone who heard the explanation was looking at the young Inuzuka with shock clearly written on their faces.

Kiba didn't waste any more time, the second he heard his mother finish explaining his stance he charged at Shino with Akamaru howling next to him. Shino barely managed to dodge the lunged from Akamaru, but wasn't prepared for the devastating spin kick from Kiba that sent him to the other side of the arena. _'Not good, he's faster than I expected and that kick of his was much more damaging than it should have been,' _thought Shino as he moved to wipe away the blood from his busted lip, but flinched when he touched three claw marks on his face. _'What, how did he cut my cheek with that kick he used his heel? Could he be so fast that I couldn't even see him attack?' _thought Shino as he got up and launched a small swarm of bugs at the charging Inuzuka.

Jumping to avoid the oncoming swarm, Kiba went through a quick set of hand signs before raising his right hand to his lips.

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" he said exhaling a massive fireball that incinerated the swarm of chakra eating bugs. If everyone thought they were shocked before, they didn't know what shocked meant. They had never seen an Inuzuka use any type of jutsu except for their clan jutsu, for one to use an elemental jutsu and on such a scale was unheard of! Resuming his charge at Shino, Kiba started going through hand signs again ending with the pig sign. "Lightning Style: Lightning Strike Jutsu," lightning started spark around Kiba's right arm before he jumped slightly and thrust his arm forward, releasing a long bolt of lightning at the bug user. Shino dodged the attack with ease but was caught off guard when he felt a hand touch his back and Kiba's voice behind him. "Lightning Style: Lightning Paralysis."

Everyone was surprised when Shino suddenly erupted in lightning after he dodged the jutsu. Many were confused until they saw the entire arena start to shift slightly revealing Kiba standing behind Shino with his hands incased in lightning, while the Kiba and Akamaru who had been fighting faded away. _'What the hell just happened?' _was the shared thought of almost everyone in the arena. Shino who was laying on the ground, sparks of lightning still jumping from his body every now and then managed to ask the question everyone wanted to.

"How?" he asked in a stained voice. Kiba looked at his still form before he started petting Akamaru.

"Genjutsu," he said surprising everyone present. "My clan doesn't have many techniques outside of our taijutsu; however there are a few other techniques in the clan library. I found one that described a genjutsu that our animal counterparts can learned to perform. Like you and your bugs, we Inuzuka's can let our partners feed off our chakra, since animals are more in tune with nature they have much better control over chakra then humans. By using my chakra Akamaru here can cast a genjutsu on an opponent that can't be broken by normal means." Everyone was staring at Kiba in bewilderment, a genjutsu cast by his dog that couldn't be broken with normal means, it almost didn't seem possible. But that left the question as to how everyone was affected by it.

"But…when did you…cast it?" asked Shino his voice still strained from the attack he'd received.

"The howl," was the simple answer that no one was expecting, but it completely made since. _'A sound based genjutsu that can be cast by a dog, ingenious. No one would expect a dog's howl, which could easily be mistaken as a battle cry, to put one under a genjutsu. No wonder everyone was affected, there are very few ways to stop a sound based genjutsu, and they are even harder to detect even with a dojutsu.' _Thought the Hokage with a small smirk as he looked over at the remainder of team 7, a certain blonde specifically, _'Kakashi may have good skill in dispelling genjutsu, but he isn't good at casting them. Only Naruto could have taught him how to use something like that.'_

"Winner: Kiba Inuzuka," said Hayate once he checked Shino and found he couldn't even move, let alone fight. The only response this got was clapping from team 7 and the Sand Siblings as everyone else was preoccupied with trying to understand what they had just witnessed.

"Nice one Kiba, I was wondering when you field test that jutsu," said Naruto as he and Kiba high fived. Ino was smiling at her team mate and Kakashi was giving him his famous eye smile.

"I thought it would be a good idea, and besides Akamaru here has been dying to try it out," said Kiba with a laugh as Akamaru blushed in embarrassment, if that was even possible for a dog. They were brought out of their conversation by the sound of the screen deciding on the next fight.

"Will Neji Hyuuga and Kabuto Yakushi come down," said Hayate as the stoic Hyuuga made his way to arena, while a slightly panicked Kabuto did the same. _'Of all the opponents I could get it had to be a Hyuuga, and since competitors are not allowed to forfeit I'll have to fight to some extent or they might get suspicious if I just let him win,' _thought Kabuto as he stopped in front of Neji who had his arms crossed and a permanent scowl on his face.

'_So this is the spy team 7 told me about, if they said was true then he is at least Kakashi's level in ability. Though with his skill as a medic he could probably fight Tsunade on even ground for a while,' _thought Sarutobi with a slight frown on his face. He knew that in the best interest of the village it was better to allow Kabuto his freedom, but it still left a bad taste in his mouth at the idea of a spy walking freely through the village.

"Fighters ready," getting a nod from Kabuto and a scowl from Neji, Hayate brought his arm down, "Begin!" he said as he jumped away.

"Why don't you just give up, fate his already decided the winner of this match," said Neji in his arrogance at max. Hiashi sighed as he would have to find a way to convince Neji that fate meant nothing and to tell him why his father died that night. Kabuto was on the verge of sweat dropping, the only thing keeping him from that was the fact that his team mates wouldn't let him live it down. He, Kabuto Yakushi, right hand man of Orochimaru sweat dropping.

"I can't just give up," started Kabuto causing Neji's scowl to deepen slightly, "Didn't you hear the proctor, the match goes on until one of us dies, is knocked unconscious or he stops the match." Neji had the decency to blush slightly at that comment; he had forgotten that little bit of information.

"Is Neji…blushing?" asked a freighted Tenten, Neji never blushed, NEVER! If he was blushing then something really bad was about to happen.

Ignoring some of the shocked faces directed at him, Neji activated his Byakugan and charged at Kabuto. Anticipating the attack easily, Kabuto dodge out of the way and through a sloppy punch towards the Hyuuga genius. Neji easily blocked the punched and sent another Jyuuken strike, this one aimed for Kabuto's heart. _'He's actually trying to kill me,' _thought Kabuto slightly surprised that a Leaf genin would be willing to kill so easily. Reacting on instinct Kabuto ducked and spun around nailing Neji with a powerful sweep kick.

Jumping away from the injured Hyuuga, Kabuto was mentally cursing himself, _'Damn it, I reacted on instinct that time. That kick could blow my cover if I'm not careful.' _Neji meanwhile struck a few pressure points in his leg to rid it of the numbness that had settled in. _'His kick was strong, I better finish this now,' _he thought before charging at Kabuto. Seeing the charging genin, Kabuto knew it was time to end the match.

Neji unleashed a barrage of Jyuuken strikes at Kabuto when he reached him, landing a blow each time. If Neji would have been paying attention however he would have noticed that none of his strikes had met their original target. Kabuto was predicting the strikes with ease and moving his body slightly with each one to avoid being hit in any vital areas. This went on for a few more seconds with Neji not letting up in the slightest and Kabuto was continuing to avoid them. With one last palm thrust Neji launched Kabuto into the wall of the arena, embedding him into the surface. Slightly prying himself from the wall Kabuto lived up to his career as an actor and fell to the ground unconscious.

Hayate moved over to him and checked him over and upon finding him unconscious stood up to address everyone.

"Winner: Neji Hyuuga," said Hyuuga didn't even smile; he just scowled before making his way back up to his team. Tenten tried to congratulate him when he reached them but her only response from him was a scowl and more fate shit.

Naruto, who had been listening in, scowled as his thoughts turned darker with Neji preaching about his fate crap. _'I'll show that bastard that means nothing, he thinks just because his father was killed in place of Hiashi he has a right to belittle others, to degrade them, to make them feel lie their existence is meaningless, that he knows what pain is. You don't pain at all Neji, if I ever face you I be sure to show you the meaning of true pain,' _thought Naruto with a slight scowl on his face. He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard the board select the next competitors. Turning to face the screen his face brook out in a dark smirk when he saw who the next fighters were, turning to his team they each had smirks similar to his own, even Kakashi was smirking.

Sarutobi was sweating slightly, he took one glance at the screen and then at team 7 and he wanted to run all the way to Snow country and not look back. He prayed he was dreaming and the next wasn't actually going to happen, his hopes were crushed however by Hayate's next words.

"For the fifth match, will…"

**lol, I wish I could your guys' faces when you read that. Sorry if that pissed anyone off, but remember if you kill me you can't continuing reading my story since I won't be around to write it. Keep sending your reviews and keep trying to guess team 7's nickname, also I'm adding a new challenge:**

**If anyone can guess the remaining match ups for the prelims then one of their ideas that they submit to me will be added into the story and they will be help to decide the match ups for the finals.  
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**Well I'll catch everybody later  
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**BSW  
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	10. Chapter 10

**LOL oh my god it was so funny to use that cliffhanger like that! I apologize to anyone who almost went crazy with suspense but the very reason I put this chapter on the finish NOW pile. Well I hope this chapter lives up everyone's expectations, if not my apologies and please bring it to my attention in the form of a review or message. Also if you think I underplayed Naruto revealing certain abilities don't worry, their will eventually be a MASSIVE reaction later on so please don't flame me for that. SEE NOTE AT END OF THIS CHAPTER FOR AN IMPORTANT NOTE!  
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**crystal Coronello- Congratulations! You submitted the most accurate guess for the matches. Now I know people can see other peoples reviews, so let me explain how I chose the winner: If you could guess the two most critical matches in the prelims (those with Naruto and Ino). After I got multiple guesses that had the correct main ones, I moved on to who could guess another possible match that might be held this chapter. Though you didn't completely guess the side match, you did guess half of it along with BOTH main matches, so if you could please submit your idea to me via review or message ASAP, I will begin trying to work it into the story.  
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**kenshi- Match: Correct, Name: Wrong, sorry.  
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**Meteorthunder3- Sorry about that, I just resist the urge, and thank you for your compliments although I have to agree many of those names are a tad over used. Good try with the matches you got one right, though not the big one.  
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**hells-fox- I reject your command and substitute my own: "Read on my loyal follower and review at the end of this chapter!"  
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**Yu Paiyu- I am still excepting submissions, though I already have a good number of votes for a certain someone to be put in and yours is one of them.  
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**Uber Ghidorah- Just a few more chapters my friend, the animal puppets will be arriving soon.  
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**Frostfire613- I hope you continued to read this story, even though it contains some of the things you aren't a fan of.  
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**Warwolf16- I didn't think of that, so I hope this appeases you.  
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**SalemTheSpeakerOfTruth- Puppeteer Naruto  
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**ramen-luver101- I'm glad you liked it, I hope this chapter can get a similar reaction.  
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**Sang28- I've read a couple of stories that have Naruto and Kiba on a team, and all they give Kiba are his usual techniques, I thought it was time for a little change. Also very, very close guess for the name, I'll give one last hint before I just start telling you if its right or wrong(ANYONE CAN USE!): 'Think more along the lines along the lines of a wolfs 'family' and what else the bijuu are often called'  
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**Danget the critic- Thank you very much for the compliment, I was a little sketchy on whether to do it or not.  
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**harem lord- Nice try dude, but unfortunately wrong guess, I'll be sure to check it before the weeks over.  
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**DraygonRayne67- Good guess for both of those matches.  
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**Darkwill0w- Thank you for pointing that out to me.  
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**Kalau- Thank you, and I hope I didn't make you wait to long.  
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**Kitsune95- Thank you very much for your enthusiasm and your compliments. I thought it was time for a change with certain characters and it looks like its paying off.  
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**Chapter 10- Hidden Treasures Revealed**

"For the fifth match, will… Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha come down," said Hayate as he started a coughing fit. You could feel the temperature in the arena drop dramatically as Naruto and Sasuke made eye contact. Sasuke was giving Naruto his harshest glare, thinking that he could intimidate the dobe into forfeiting; did no one pay attention to the rules? Naruto merely brushed of the famed Uchiha death glare like it was nothing, compared to the glares the villagers had given him Sasuke's little attempt was nothing.

Sasuke looked away from the blonde when he didn't even flinch at his glare and jumped over the railing, eager to win the match. Naruto however, didn't even try to move, he just stood there looking at the arena floor with that dark smirk still present on his face.

"What's the matter dobe, afraid to fight me? Or is it that you've finally learned your place, beneath me and everyone else here?" said Sasuke with a smirk thinking he had this match in the bag. Sakura, who had been unconscious ever since her match, woke up just in time to hear what Sasuke said. Standing up, she went back to the task of being a loyal puppy… I mean fan girl.

"Yeah dobe, why don't you just give up; there's no way you could ever hope to beat Sasuke-kun," she said before she started laughing at him, only serving to increase Sasuke's smirk. To the surprise of everyone, it wasn't Naruto who responded to the insult, it was Gaara. Sand immediately incased Sakura in a coffin that was getting tighter with every passing second. The second Sakura was trapped she immediately stopped laughing and instead had a look of pure terror on her face. What Gaara said only increased her terror and terrified everyone present.

"If you ever insult my friend in front of me again, I don't care if it starts a war between our villages, I will kill you without a second thought. As it is…" Gaara trailed off as the sand around Sakura started to crush her even more. The Hokage and the jounin's were about to interfere when a cold voice stopped them in their tracks.

"Put her down Gaara, she isn't worth your effort," said Naruto his eyes never leaving Sasuke, "Thank you my friend for defending me, but we don't need the blood of innocent jounin spilled because of a stupid fan girl. Don't worry; she will get everything that's coming to her before these exams are over." The tone in which he spoke chilled everyone to the bone, but what started every high ranking ninja there, except for Kakashi, was what he said about them dying. _'He doesn't want _our _blood spilled? There is more to those two then meets the eye,' _thought the Hokage and almost every other jounin in the room. "Now I believe there is a match to be fought." This brought everyone back to the present, before they noticed that Naruto still had not moved from his spot on the balcony.

"We can't start the match until you come down here, Uzumaki," said Hayate in his usual tone as if the conversation that just took place never happened. When he saw Naruto nod his head he thought he was going to copy Sasuke or take the stairs down, no one expected what happened next though. Naruto started sinking into the floor of the balcony with the area around him rippling like water. After he had completely vanished from sight a ripple appeared in front of Sasuke and Hayate and out of it came Naruto with his arms still crossed and his smirk never faltering. Everyone was speechless; the only people who were able to do that technique were Orochimaru of the Sannin and the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju himself.

"Now may we start the match?" asked Naruto his gaze never leaving the smirking emo in front of him. Shaking off his shock, Hayate looked at both boys before going through the regular procedures.

"The fifth match, Naruto Uzumaki vs. Sasuke Uchiha. Are both of you ready?" receiving a nod and smirk from Sasuke and a slight nod from Naruto, Hayate brought his hand down before jumping all the way back to the statue, fearing for his life. "BEGIN!"

Neither of them moved for what seemed like forever. The atmosphere was thick with tension; everyone waiting for the two titan's to clash.

"Just give up," said Sasuke with a smirk, "A dobe like you is no match for me, not with my Sharingan." Sasuke's eyes bled to red with two tomoe around each pupil. "With these eyes, I am invincible," he said as he slipped into the Uchiha Interceptor taijutsu style, with his left arm in front of his neck with the hand closed into a fist, his right hand inside his weapons holster and his knees bent, ready to move.

"You think just because you have the Sharingan that you are invincible? A dojutsu doesn't make one invincible, no matter what kekkei genkai you have there is always a weakness to it, it's only a matter of finding it," said Naruto not moving the slightest muscle, infuriating Sasuke even more.

"There is no weakness to the Sharingan! Even if there was, how would a dobe like you be able to find it?" asked the last loyal Uchiha with a sneer. Naruto closed his eyes and then started to chuckle, his chuckles eventually grew into a full blown laughter confusing everyone present, except for team 7. _'So he's pulling it out already huh? Must want to bring Sasuke down a peg or ten,' _was the general thought process of team 7. Naruto's laughter had subsided by now and only came out in short chuckles every few seconds.

"How would I find the weakness of the Sharingan? Simple Sasuke, I already know it," said Naruto, his eyes still closed.

"LIAR, THERE IS NO WEAKNESS TO THE SHARINGAN, AND THERE'S NO WAY A DOBE LIKE YOU COULD FIND ONE IF THERE WAS ONE!" screamed Sasuke in rage, how dare this loser mock his clans kekkei genkai!

"Of course I know the Sharingan's weakness, after all, why wouldn't I know the weakness of my own kekkei genkai?" said Naruto shocking everyone in the arena. _'Naruto has the Sharingan? That shouldn't be possible!' _thought the Hokage and every other Leaf ninja present. Sasuke was looking at Naruto with disbelief, before he smirked and started laughing at the absurdity of the situation.

"You…have the Sharingan…don't make me laugh dobe! How could you possibly have the blessed eyes of my clan?" asked Sasuke as he continued laughing. His laughing stopped though when he heard collective gasps from everyone in the arena. Looking around at everyone present, all he saw were pale, shocked, or smirking faces; the last ones coming from team 7. Following their line of sight, his eyes landed on Naruto before they nearly popped out of his head. Gone were the calculating sapphire eyes that everyone had come to know Naruto for. In their place were two blood red irises with three tomoe spinning wildly around an obsidian pupil. _'The Sharingan? That shouldn't be possible…HOW THE HELL DID THE DOBE GET THOSE EYES?' _"How the hell did you get those eyes dobe?" screamed the Uchiha, all rational thought leaving him.

"You want the truth?" getting a furious nod from the Uchiha, Naruto continued, "If you must know, I got these eyes when I killed an Uchiha jounin that tried to kill me when I was younger. With a little help from a friend mine, I was able to isolate the gene that carried the Sharingan and transplanted it into my own genetics. Thanks to that little operation, and some modifications made by friend, I am now the first holder of the improved Sharingan. I no longer face the dangers of going blind once I achieve the Mangekyo, and I don't have to kill my best friend just to receive power," said Naruto as he finally moved his body for the first time, slipping into the Uchiha Interceptor opening stance like Sasuke.

No one could believe what they were seeing, or hearing what that matter. Naruto not only possessed the famed Sharingan, but he was the first to possess an improved version of it? _'What the hell did he mean by Mangekyo? Could it be that there is a higher level of Sharingan that surpasses the third tomoe?' _thought the Hokage before he realized that the council would somehow hear of this and then the shit would hit the fan for him. _'Naruto, I love you like one of my own, but you can be the source of some very bad headaches for me. Wait a second; did he just smirk at me? That little brat, he planned that!' _thought Sarutobi with a dark look towards Naruto, who just smirked at him again before he charged at the still stunned Uchiha.

Sasuke barely had time to react, one second Naruto was on the other side of the arena and the next he was in his face with right hook aimed at his temple. Ducking under the punch, Sasuke tried for a vertical kick to knock the blonde off balance. Even without his Sharingan, Naruto predicted this and was already set to counter. Catching the attacking foot in his still outstretched right hand, he used to momentum to jumped slightly and launch his own kick at Sasuke's jaw. With his left hand supporting him, Sasuke used his right to catch the kick before it made contact. They stayed in that position for a second before they both brook away from the other and started going through the same series of hand signs.

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" came the simultaneous cry of the two shinobi. Both fireball's met in the center of the two before an explosion happened, blanketing the arena with smoke. No one could see a thing; the only sign that both boys were still alive was the sounds of metal hitting metal. When the smoke cleared enough for everyone to see, it revealed Naruto and Sasuke each with ninja wires in-between their teeth with shuriken attached to the end tangled with the others, as they again went through the same hand signs. "Fire Style: Dragon Fire Jutsu," white hot flames erupted from the boys mouths and started traveling down the ninja wire before they met in the tangled group of shuriken before another explosion happened once again clouding everyone's view of the arena.

This time the smoke cleared to reveal Sasuke with a smirk on his face and a kunai stabbed into Naruto's heart. Everyone held their breath as they watched this scene paly out before them; no one could believe that Sasuke would go as far as to kill Naruto just to win a match. However their worry turned to relief and then shock when they saw the Naruto Sasuke stabbed turn into water. _'What, where did he get the water to use that jutsu?' _Naruto appeared where Sasuke once was with his Uchiha puppet next to him. Sasuke turned to see Naruto with someone wearing a jounin outfit standing next to him, his eyes widened however when he recognized the symbol on the man shoulders as that of the Uchiha military. Looking at the man's face he saw the familiar Sharingan spinning in his eyes, but what caught his attention though were the three claw shaped scars on the man's face.

"Uncle?" whispered Sasuke, though because of the silence in the arena everyone heard it. Naruto raised an eyebrow in mild surprise, he didn't expect his puppet to be Sasuke's uncle.

"So this was your uncle huh? Oh well, he's my weapon now," said Naruto with a shrug before he twitched his fingers and the puppet shot forward, surprising the Sand Siblings. _'Naruto knows the Puppet Master Jutsu? That must be what he was doing when he vanished when he came to visit the Sand!' _thought Temari and Kankuro, while Gaara merely raised an eyebrow.

Sasuke was furious by this point, not only did the dobe have his family's kekkei genkai but he had killed his uncle and was using him as a mere puppet to fight him? His hatred for Naruto had just gone through the roof; he would make sure he paid dearly for this crime against the Uchiha! He was so overcome with rage that he didn't notice when he started making hand signs faster than he should have been able to and that he didn't even know this series of hand signs! Naruto on the other hand, noticed the hand signs and recognized them as a jutsu he had learned from his Uchiha puppet, but could never perform. Pulling his puppet back and resealing it to keep it from getting destroyed by this next attack, he started going through hand signs at a rate that most jounin couldn't follow, while unsealing a familiar kage who also went through hand signs. Finishing his hand signs, Sasuke unleashed a jutsu that he had only read about before.

"Blaze Style: Incinerating Fireball Jutsu!" he brought his hand to his lips like he would for a normal fireball, but instead of the red/orange flames of normal fire, flames blacker than even his onyx eyes came forth and charged at the blonde shinobi. Said blonde had just finished his hand signs with the snake sign before slamming his hands on the ground.

"Wood Style: Life Regenerating Shield!" multiple roots rose from the ground and encased Naruto and the Second in a wooden dome, while the Second slammed his hands on the ground causing a wall of water to rise from the ground and surround them. To everyone else this happened in the span of a few second with the only thing they saw being the black fireball as it struck the place Naruto was. Nobody moved, nobody breathed, they couldn't believe what they had seen and learned throughout the duration of this match. First Naruto was in possession of the Sharingan, one that was apparently an improved version of the original Sharingan. Second, Naruto could use a water style jutsu without any water around as well as use the feared Puppet Master Jutsu of the Hidden Sand. Finally, the last Uchiha had unlocked his clans unique Blaze Style that granted them the ability to use the black flames of Hell!

Hayate, who had retreated to stand by the Hokage when the first explosion occurred, was about to call the match when the Hokage stopped him with a look. _'What could Lord Hokage be thinking; there is no way that Naruto could have survived an attack from the Blaze Style. It's said that not even the strongest water jutsu can extinguish those flames,' _thought a totally confused Hayate before he followed the Hokage's line of sight and came face to face with a smirking team 7, _'Why the hell are they smirking there team mate just died!_' Many of the other clan heads were thinking the same thing as they had also followed the Hokage's sight, all except for a certain Hyuuga.

'_It can't be; Naruto is alive! His chakra signature just spiked through the roof and it seems he's surrounded by some kind of wood. But wait there's wall of water around him as well? Who could have…wait there's another chakra signature, they were the one to cast the other jutsu,' _thought Hiashi as he watched the flames continue to burn.

Sasuke was panting, with a smirk on his face. He had unlocked his clans Blaze Style and had just destroyed the annoying blonde murderer. _'That's for my uncle you bastard, though I guess I should thank you. Thanks to you I have gotten one step closer to killing my brother,' _thought Sasuke in sadistic glee. Canceling the flow of chakra to the flames, he watched as they slowly died down, before they vanished entirely. His smirk vanished altogether, only to be replaced by shock at what he was seeing. _'It can't be! The Blaze Style of our clan should be able to burn through anything! How did a wall of water and some roots protect the dobe from my jutsu?' _thought Sasuke. Where the black flames once burned was a dome of wood with scorch mark and burn chunks missing from where the flames had broken through the wall of water that was pierced in some areas. To the amazement of everyone though, the wood dome was regenerating itself at a rate that could only be matched by the Kyuubi's own regeneration.

Everyone else was having similar thoughts to the Uchiha, except for Hiashi and the Hokage. Hiashi finally recognized the figure that was with Naruto and to say he was surprised would be an understatement. There kneeling next to Naruto, was the Second Hokage himself, Tobirama Senju in all his glory.

Releasing the jutsu's showed Naruto panting slightly while he leaned against Tobirama for support, _'Damn that jutsu took more out of me than I expected. I'll have to use my puppets now if I want to conserve chakra for later. You should feel honored Sasuke; you will be the first true test for my grandfather and granduncle,' _thought Naruto before he unsealed Hashirama and attached his chakra strings to him.

Everyone was stunned into silence, not only had Naruto survived a jutsu that should have turned him to ash, but he also had the First and Second Hokage's as his puppets somehow. _'He must have used the same method as when he made that Uchiha puppet,' _thought the clan heads while they smirked as they watched the match about to begin again. They knew the civilians and elders were going to raise all hell about Naruto wielding the First and Second as puppets, but they could see the value in this situation. Even if they were only puppets, the First and Second Hokage's were two of the most powerful shinobi to ever grace their village. To have their strength defending the village once again was an opportunity not to be passed up.

Sasuke was panting like crazy, as he watched Naruto stand up with the First and Second in battle stances ready to attack. _'Damn you dobe, I will get my revenge for this!' _he thought before he was bombarded by a fearsome taijutsu combination from the First and Second. The onslaught continued for a few minutes before he was knocked into the wall by two roundhouse kicks from the kages and created a large crater on impact. Hayate took that moment to appear next to him and check him over before turning to the awed crowd.

"Winner: Naruto Uzumaki!" said Hayate while the medics came and took Sasuke away to be treated. Team 7 began clapping like crazy for their team mate as he sealed up the kages before jumping up to them. Before he could even react, Ino was wrapped around him trying to steal his tongue with her own. Grabbing her firm rear to keep her from falling, he gladly returned the kiss she was giving him with as much passion as he could muster. Meanwhile Kiba was taking pictures with a camera he pulled out of nowhere while muttering 'blackmail gold' every now and then while Kakashi was giggling perversely while taking notes, with the intent to send them to Jiraiya for his next book. Many of the clan heads, Shikaku and Choza specifically, were inching away from Inoichi expecting him to go into a fit of rage and try to kill the Naruto for what he and his daughter were doing. In public no less! To the surprise and utter shock of everyone, he simply took out a camera of his own and snapped a few pictures. After he put the camera away he noticed the looks he was getting from everyone else.

"What, my wife has been trying to get a picture of those two kissing since they started dating. I figured I'd go ahead and get one for her, besides they'll be great blackmail material later on," he said with a smirk. Now everyone was really shocked, on top of what they saw in that match, Inoichi who was feared for having sent many males to the hospital for even looking at his daughter was not only allowing her and her boyfriend to kiss like that in public, but also took pictures of it for blackmail! _'Either I'm dreaming or the world is about to end,' _thought the other clan heads.

However not everyone's thoughts were happy or scared, there was one person in the arena that had an aura of death around them at what she had seen since the start of the prelims. Hinata was furious, first that sand girl has the nerve to kiss _her _Naruto and now the blonde bitch was literally wrapped around him while trying to steal his tongue. _'Those sluts, I will make them regret the day they ever met Naruto-kun. He is MINE and I won't let some blonde bitch or some sand slut to take him from me!' _thought Hinata while her team mates backed away from her, even her sensei was terrified of the enraged girl. _'I knew women where troublesome but this is ridiculous,' _thought Shikamaru as he tried to push himself further into the wall while praying his match was next. _'Hinata, please don't do anything you'll regret later on,' _thought Kurenai as she turned her attention to the scrolling names once again.

"Will Shikamaru Nara and Tenten please come down for the sixth match," said Hayate as he once again stood in the center of the arena. Tenten jumped over the railing with Lee shouting support for her; however no one expected Shikamaru's response.

"Oh thank kami!" he screamed as he jumped down to the floor and ran to other side of it facing Tenten, a mix of relief, fear, and dread on his face. _'Yep I was right, the end of the world is coming,' _thought all the clan heads as they watched Shikamaru actually want to fight or put forth effort at all!

"Alright then, the sixth match, Shikamaru Nara vs. Tenten. Are the both of you ready?" asked Hayate getting a nod from Tenten while Shikamaru gave a hesitant nod. "Then, begin!" he shouted before jumping back.

Tenten wasted no time and jumped back to put some distance between them. _'Something isn't right, from what I've heard this guy supposed to be the laziest person on the planet. Why the hell would actually put forth effort now? Could he be serious about becoming chuunin?' _thought Tenten before she threw a handful of kunai at Shikamaru, who dodge them fairly easily despite his lazy nature.

Shikamaru was busy trying to think of way to prolong the match for as long as possible, while at the same time actually winning, _'Kami knows if were to lose Hinata might try something, when she's pissed like this you don't won't to disappoint her.' _He looked at Tenten with a calculating eye as he analyzed and pierced together her fighting style just from her opening movements. _'Alright, it looks like she's a long range fighter, must likely a weapons expert if her first wave of kunai was anything to go by. However based on the composition of her team, and who her sensei is, she is also probably very skilled in taijutsu. Hmmmm I could come up with a couple of strategies to fight her, but I still don't know enough to ensure a victory. I guess I better follow team 7's example, no more holding back,' _thought the lazy genius before he made a familiar cross-shaped hand sign.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu," a cloud of smoke covered Shikamaru before it cleared to show three extra copies of him.

_With the Clan heads_

"Shikaku-san, since when has your son been able to perform an A-ranked forbidden jutsu?" he asked in his typical Aburame monotone. They all heard a sigh from Shikaku followed by a mumbled 'troublesome' before he turned to address them.

"He's been able to perform that jutsu ever since he graduated the academy. It is required in our clan that once one graduates the academy they must learn to perform that jutsu," he said before he turned back to the match and watched as his son and his clones fight.

"Why would require a fresh graduate to be able to perform such a jutsu, and how did you get the knowledge of it in the first place? The only records of that technique are sealed in the Forbidden Scroll of Seals," said Tsume with a threating glare towards the Nara. Sighing again, Shikaku adapted a serious expression that took man of them by surprise.

"We require it, because our clan is the one who created it," he said shocking the others. "Our clan is known for being lazy, but we are also feared for our command of shadows. Haven't any of you found it weird that although we're lazy as hell, every task given to us is completed to perfection and in the fastest way possible? It's because of our Shadow Clone Jutsu, most of the time the original will just be lazy as usual while he sends his clones out to perform whatever task is needed." When he finished most of the clan heads had their jaws on the ground. They had never considered that the laziest clan in the world would have been able of creating the feared Shadow Clone Jutsu.

_Back in the Arena_

'_Damn for someone who is supposed to be lay as hell, he sure can move!' _thought Tenten as she unleashed another barrage of shuriken, only to have it dodge. Getting frustrated she made a grab for one of her special scrolls, but before she could even touch it her body suddenly stopped listening to her.

"Shadow Possession complete," said a voice from behind her. Everyone turned to see the owner of the voice, only to see shadow cast by the balconies with a thin black line attached to Tenten's shadow. Out of the shadows walked Shikamaru with his hands in his pockets.

"How did you get behind me?" asked Tenten as she looked at the clones before her. To everyone's surprise though all of them disappeared in a poof of smoke. "What they were all clones, how?" asked a stunned Tenten.

"When I first created them; I used the smoke as a cover to use my clans Walking Shadow Jutsu which allows us to become one with the shadows to hide and move into position to trap you," he said surprising everyone, even his dad. _'How much are you truly capable of son?' _thought Shikaku with a smirk. "Well I guess I should end this now," said Shikamaru back in his usual bored tone. Before he could do anything thought, he was interrupted by a banshee screeching.

"How the hell are you going end the match, she'll just copy whatever you do," said Sakura with smirk, thinking she was right as always. What no one expected though was for two kunai to pass by her face narrowly missing her. Looking to where they came from, she found Shikamaru with his hand still out stretched from where he through on at her, with Tenten mimicking his movements.

"If you would shut up and quit poking your nose in things that don't concern you, you might find out," said Shikamaru in a cold tone that didn't sit well with his personality. Before anyone could make a move, he started going through hand signs, with Tenten mimicking him again. Ending in the rat sign, he performed a jutsu that had his father raising an eyebrow in surprise. "Shadow Split," he said before he took a step away from Tenten, but to the utter shock of everyone there, his shadow stayed in place and where Shikamaru once stood an exact duplicate of him formed; only he was completely black. Walking over to the still trapped Tenten he pulled out a kunai before placing against her neck. "Now, I believe that's checkmate," he said looking at Hayate.

"Winner: Shikamaru Nara," said Hayate as Shikamaru's shadow released Tenten before sinking into the ground and moving to attach itself back to him. The silence that had descended over the arena when Shikamaru performed that last jutsu was broken by the sound of Naruto clapping, soon followed by his team and the rest of the people on the arena.

Hayate turned again to the screen as it started going through the names of the remaining contestants, before settling on the next two.

"Will Kankuro of the Desert and Misumi Tsurugi please come down for the seventh match," said Hayate as Kankuro jumped over the rail and stood in front of him, while Misumi seemed content enough to walk down the steps. Once the two were in position Hayate went through his normal routine, "Are you both ready?" getting two nods he brought his hand down and shouted, "Begin!"

Misumi didn't waste any time, as soon as Hayate was clear he began his assault. Throwing a handful of shuriken at Kankuro to distract him, he did two hand signs before he threw his right arm forward like he was going to throw a punch. Kankuro dodged the shuriken with ease but he wasn't prepared for the now rubber like arm of Misumi to smash him in the face. He was sent rolling a few feet away before recovering and removing his puppet from his back. Everyone paid extra attention as they were curious as to what that thing was, well the genin anyway; everyone else was comparing this kid's skill in puppetry to Naruto's.

Once he removed the wraps around Crow, everyone got their first good luck at what a puppet was like, everyone but the Hokage, team 7 and Shibi who had fought many puppet users before. It was made of a dark brown wood, with a mangy head of black hair on top along with a black cloak covering its body. It had four arms protruding from under the cloak, with two feet to support it, the three eyes on its head spun lazily before settling on Misumi. Said spy was eyeing the puppet warily, from what he had seen in Naruto's match; those things were not to be taken lightly. Flicking his wrist, Kankuro launched Crow straight at Misumi who dump to the side just in time to dodge the lung. What he didn't notice though was the small knife retracting back inside of Crow after he passed him, a mistake he would regret sooner then he thinks.

Misumi went to grab a kunai before his body suddenly collapsed to the ground writhing in pain. The genin were confused as to what just happened, but before they could voice their thoughts Misumi suddenly stopped moving all together, and even through his face mask you could tell he was foaming at the mouth. Hayate moved to check for a pulse but couldn't find any; sighing at the first death of the prelims he addressed the curious crowd.

"Winner by death: Kankuro of the Desert," no one seemed to move after he had spoken. The only people who didn't seem the least bit phased by the death were those who were either aware of the invasion or had seen plenty of death in their time. The rooky genin, minus team 7, were stunned that someone their age could kill so heartlessly. By that time Kankuro had made it back to his siblings and team 7, turning to Naruto he gave him a thumbs up.

"Hey thanks for the new poison Naruto; you weren't kidding when you said that stuff was fast acting. Where did you learn about it, I haven't found any records of a poison like that one in Sand, and we're feared for poison mastery," said Kankuro as everyone turned their attention to the blonde shinobi who was lazily leaning against the wall.

"There are no records because I only recently created it," he said surprising everyone listening, including Anko who was now very interested in what he had to say, "It's a unique mixture that is made from the venom of the Winged Viper from Wind Country, the Magma Cobra from Demon Country, and Water Countries Acid-Tongue Toad. I won't tell you the mixing ratios but I'll tell you the effects; Winged Viper venom is a neurotoxin that stuns the body hardens the muscles preventing movement, this alone wouldn't kill someone but when you factor in the poison of an Acid-Tongue, that's different story. Acid-Tongue poison is a slow acting poison that slowly eats away the outer skin and muscles of the body. The tricky thing about though is that unlike most poisons, were if you move the poison spreads faster, this poison will take longer to take affect the more you move, so when combined with the stunning effects of the Winged Viper, this poison can become a serious threat. However that posed another problem, because it is slow acting, while the combination might be good for torture and interrogation, it's not good for battle. That's where the Magma Cobra comes into play, its venom is a fast-acting acid that will destroy all the internal parts of the body, organs, skeleton, soft tissue. When these three are combined however the result is quite terrifying to an enemy, or ally. Together they form a fast-acting corrosive neurotoxin; once its injected it immediately attacks the brain, causing the convulsing you saw before, after that it starts eating away at the targets organs turning them into mush within seconds, and finally everything on the inside is destroyed, it will move and start to eat away at the outer body."

No one could believe what they just heard; a poison of that caliber could easily kill off an entire village if it was put in the hands of a master. Sarutobi cleared his throat to catch their attention and asked the question that he didn't know if he wanted the answer to or not.

"Naruto, how exactly did you test out that poison?" he asked causing many to tense waiting for the response. If he could kill someone's family, although unknowingly, and not care about it, then there was no telling what he might do!

"Oh some random civilian who tried to attack me; you should have gotten the missing persons report on them by now, I think it was something Haruno," he said with shrug. No one noticed Sakura suddenly tense as she thought, _'Could he be the one who killed my cousin?'_ The Hokage had a thoughtful look on his face before suddenly snapped his fingers at remembering something.

"Ah yes, I believe it was Sakurai Haruno if I'm not mistaken. Just for the record Naruto, what exactly did he do when he attacked you?" asked the Hokage in such calm voice that you would have thought they were talking about the weather.

"He called me a demon, which is punishable by death due to your law about me still standing," Sarutobi nodded at this, that was how he managed to put the civilian council in its place when they brought the topic about Naruto killing innocents forward as a way to have him executed. "He drew a rusted kunai on me, probably got it from a training ground since he wasn't a shinobi, and tried to stab me with it. I simply avoided his attempts and when he tried again cut him with a poison tipped kunai. Everything after that is pretty self-explanatory," said Naruto before he was blasted with a measly amount of killing intent. Looking at the source, everyone found a pissed off Sakura Haruno who had an aura of death around her, well death by her standards and an upset baby to everyone else. She lunged at Naruto with a kunai drawn, screaming bloody murder at him.

"YOU BASTARD YOU KILLED MY COUSIN!" she screamed as she charged him at her fastest speed, which was quite pathetic. She didn't make it within ten feet of him, before she was being held by Shinigami who had his tanto to her neck while Kami had the edge of his hidden blade dangerously close to her eyes. Naruto merely looked on with a bored expression on his face before he raised his hand, chakra strings clearly visible, and twitched his pinky slightly. Shinigami reacted instantly and moved his tanto so it looked like he was going to stab her neck. That seemed to be Naruto's intent as he twitched his pinky again and Shinigami pulled his tanto back to stab the pink-haired banshee.

Anyone who didn't know about the Hokage's order that Naruto could kill whoever attacked him, couldn't move in time before the heard the sound of metal cutting flesh in the deafening silence that had overcome the arena.

Sakura watched on in fear as the lethal blade drew closer and closer to her neck, all too willing to end her life. She closed her eyes right before it struck her, not wanting the last thing she saw to be that damned blonde who killed hers and Sasuke's family members. Her eyes flew open however when she barely felt the blade nick her throat, but in the silence it sounded more like a head being cut off. She fell unceremoniously on her butt when Shinigami released his hold on her and moved to stand behind Naruto along with his brother. Sputtering for a few minutes, she finally managed to get a coherent sentence out.

"What the hell did you do? I thought you were going to kill me?" she asked in complete shock, as was everyone else in the arena, even his team thought he was going to kill her. Naruto merely resealed his brothers before turning away from her and facing the screen which had already selected the next competitors before responding.

"Simple, death is to easy a punishment for what you and your family have to done to me in the past. So I applied the worst possible punishment anyone can use on a female," at this most of the males were slightly confused, while the other females in the arena all tensed and felt a small amount of pity for Sakura, if only for the fact that she was also a female. "I took away your ability to sire children." The silence that followed this seemed to be endless, it only ended when the Hokage announced that the matches were to resume then.

Sakura sat there, still trying to process what had just happened to her, before it finally sank in. _'I can't have children? Then I can't help Sasuke rebuild his clan, and he won't be an eligible candidate for when he is put under the CRA! How could he…I SWEAR IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO, I WILL KILL YOU FOR THIS YOU BASTARD!' _she thought but before she even think of a plan to get her revenge she was knocked unconscious by two tremendous killing intents; it seems that the fighters just figured out it was their turn.

"Will Ino Yamanaka and Hinata Hyuuga please come down?"


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey everybody, my sincerest apologies for not updating this fic in like...forever. Because of the length of time between this update and the last one, there won't be any responses to reviews, for those of you who were hoping for it, I apologize once again. Now for a quick recap of what has happened so far: in the last chapter, Naruto and Sasuke faced off with each other and Naruto revealed a few of his secrets(His Sharingan, his First and Second Hokage puppet, his abilities to use Wood Style, and his Uchiha puppet turned out to be Sasuke's Uncle). Sasuke unlocked his clans Blaze Style, but still lost the match and Naruto was named the winner. Shikamaru won his match against Tenten, Kankuro killed Misumi with a new poison he got from Naruto, and Naruto took away Sakura's ability to sire children, and of course I left you guys with the suspenseful cliffhanger of Ino and Hinata's match.  
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**Well now that that's taken care of, we can get on with the chapter!  
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**I own nothing  
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**Chapter 11- Kunoichi Cat Fight!**

"Will Ino Yamanaka and Hinata Hyuuga please come down?"

Life in the arena seemed to stop as the two kunoichi starred each other down, their killing intent rolling off of them in waves. Even the seasoned jounin senseis, the Clan Heads and the Hokage were having trouble handling the killing intent. The only one, who seemed remotely unaffected, despite their close proximity to one of the sources of killing intent, was Naruto himself. Despite the murderous atmosphere around him, Naruto seemed to just brush it off as nothing. _'Well this match certainly won't end without bloodshed, Hinata's jealous about Ino-chan being my girlfriend, and Ino-chan's become a lot more possessive ever since we got together,' _thought Naruto as a smirk spread across his face, _'Even poor Hayate down their seems to be having trouble handling the killing intent. Oh well, guess I'd better do something to get this match started before everyone here goes into cardiac arrest because of the killing intent.'_

"Good luck Ino-chan," said Naruto, catching Ino's attention and cutting off her killing intent, causing many to sigh in relief at the loss of tension in the atmosphere, though they were still wary of Hinata. Pulling his girlfriend into a hug, Naruto whispered into her ear, "Don't hold back, she'll do everything she can to kill you in this match, do the same." Ino nodded in understanding before ending the hug and jumping over the railing, ready to get the fight under way. This seemed to get Hinata's attention as she jumped down and landed across from Ino, already in her family's taijutsu stance. Still shaken from the killing intent that the two kunoichi unleashed, Hayate managed to start the match before he retreated to stand next to the Hokage.

Hinata didn't waste a second, the second Hayate started the match, she charged forward with her palm cocked back and ready to strike. Seeing the completely lethal strike, Ino pulled a kunai out of her holster and threw it at the charging Hyuuga's feet. Hinata jumped over the kunai, but received a palm to the face instead. Ino landed on the ground before charging at the prone Hyuuga heiress, who was slowly getting to her feet. Thanks to her Byakugan, Hinata saw Ino's punch that was aimed for her stomach. Twisting her body out of the way of the punch, Hinata used the opening it presented and struck a pressure point in Ino's neck, cutting the flow of blood to her brain. Jumping away from the now lifeless body, Hinata smirked, thinking that Naruto was hers now. Her smirk vanished though, when Ino's body disappeared in a poof of smoke, revealing it to be a shadow clone.

"So you really are aiming to kill me," said Ino's voice. Hinata whirled around trying to find the voice, only to receive and spin kick to the face instead. Ino landed in a crouch as she watched Hinata slowly get her bearings back from the kick. "Tell me Hinata, why are you so angry at me? What have I done to warrant you wishing to kill me?" asked Ino genuinely curious. She was well aware that Hinata had a huge crush on Naruto, but with the way she was reacting to the two of them simply being near each other, was borderline obsession.

"Why?" repeated Hinata with a glare so harsh, she would have given Orochimaru a run for his money. "Because you took away the one thing that should have been mine," said Hinata, her gaze darting to Naruto for a second before returning to glaring at Ino. "Naruto-kun was my inspiration, the way he carried himself, the power he concealed from everybody, everything about him inspired me. Ever since we started the Academy, all you and every other girl cared about was Sasuke, you never cared for Naruto-kun, but I did. I don't know what your plan is, but I won't let you use Naruto-kun just so you can break his heart later!" screamed Hinata before she charged at the Yamanaka heiress, murder blazing in her Byakugan.

Ino simply dodged the sloppy strikes, Hinata's anger and fury causing her to lose focus of her attacks. Ino, meanwhile, had a look of understanding on her face, _'Now I get it, her love and obsession for Naruto-kun isn't what she thinks it is at all. She truly does care for Naruto-kun, but it's a sisterly love, she's just blinded herself to that fact.' _Ino dodged another sloppy Jyuuken strike from the enraged heiress and quickly made eye contact with her boyfriend, creating a small mental link between them with her families mind jutsu. _'Naruto-kun, can you hear me?' _she asked mentally as she continued to dodge Hinata's attempts on her life.

_With Naruto_

'_Naruto-kun, can you hear me?' _a familiar female voice asked inside Naruto's head, surprising both jinchuuriki and bijuu. _'Wha… Ino-chan, how are you in my head?'_ asked Naruto mentally, while Kurama raised a fox equivalent to an eyebrow in interest at the conversation he was hearing.

Down in the arena, Ino smirked slightly at catching her boyfriend off guard, _'My clans mind based jutsu allows us to create small mental connections between ourselves and others. I just figured out something very interesting about Hinata that explains a lot about her behavior recently.' _Ino's voice said over the mind link. Naruto nodded slightly in understanding before asking her to continue. _'Well based her little outburst, I've come to the conclusion that she really does care for you Naruto-kun, just not in the way she thinks. Her love for you is a sisterly love, but since she doesn't have a brother of her own, she doesn't know the difference between the love of a brother and actual love. Her over protective and slightly obsessive nature about you is just her sisterly instincts to try and protect you from anyone who would try and harm you, and that's exactly what she thinks I'm trying to do,' _said Ino as she ducked under another palm thrust from Hinata and countered with a kick to the Hyuuga's stomach, giving her enough time to jump away from Hinata and drew a kunai.

'_Then we have to find a way to make her realize this, the only question is how?' _thought Naruto as he contemplated possible ways of solving the problem. Both Ino and Naruto were brought out of their thoughts by the sound of new voice in their mental link, a rather demonic one.

'_**What about having Ino use her clans Mind Transfer Jutsu to enter the Hyuuga girls mind and explain things that way?'**_ asked Kurama; Ino was about to agree to the idea, but Naruto beat her to it. _'No it's too risky, Hinata is so full of rage that if Ino-chan confronts her alone, it could just escalate the situation. I'll have to be present when we confront her, it's the only way I can see of getting through to Hinata,' _said Naruto, unaware of the growing smirk on his girlfriend's face.

'_Naruto-kun, you're a genius, brace yourself against something, I'm about to make my move,' _said Ino as she made a couple of hand signs, before aiming her left hand, palm out, towards the charging Hinata and her right, towards Naruto. Said jinchuuriki barely had time to recognize the jutsu Ino was about to use, before he felt his mind leaving his body.

Kiba and Kakashi had been watching the match with interest, but had turned their attention to Naruto after Hinata's small outburst. They watched as Naruto's face contorted in and out of confusion and concentration before they noticed Ino arms pointing at the blonde jinchuuriki. Confused by this move, they were about to ask the other blonde of team 7 what was going on, until his body went limp and began to fall to the floor. Kakashi moved to catch Naruto's body before looking into the arena and sure enough, both Ino and Hinata's bodies were lying limp on the floor.

"What the hell is going on?" asked Kiba out loud as he looked from the two bodies in the arena to the body his sensei had leaned against the wall.

"Looks like Naruto and Ino are confronting Hinata together, we'll just have to wait and see how things go," said Kakashi with a sigh before he pulled a familiar orange book out his weapons pouch and began reading, "This could take a while, might as well get comfortable," said Kakashi, loud enough for everyone in the arena to hear, knowing that many had turned their gaze to the remainder of team 7 when the three genin had passed out.

_With the Hokage_

'_Hmmm, I wonder what is going on between those three,' _thought Sarutobi as he watched the three unconscious bodies with interest. _'Whatever it is, if Naruto is involved in it, then it will surely cause drastic changes to the village,' _he thought as a smirk grew on his face at the things his surrogate grandson could be up to. His smirk vanished however when another thought entered his head, _'The last time Naruto did something that changed the village, the paperwork on my desk more than doubled. Damn it Naruto, I swear if you cause me to have any more paperwork I swear I'll…' _thought the Hokage, his thoughts turning dark towards the end.

"Umm, Hokage-sama, what should we do? Naruto Uzumaki has technically interfered with the match, but I don't know for whom," said Hayate, bringing the Hokage out of his dark thoughts concerning his favorite blonde headache.

"Then do nothing, we do not know what is happening, or that Naruto has actually interfered with the match. It could very well be that Naruto was still fatigued from his match and passed out, there is no indication that Naruto has done anything to break any of the rules," said Sarutobi in a sage like voice, his many years of experience showing through.

"That may be Hokage-sama, but even if Naruto-san hasn't interfered, both participating kunoichi are unconscious and cannot continue. The match should be called as a draw," said Hayate, only to receive a look that clearly said 'are you stupid.'

"If you were paying attention to the competitors in this match, one of them is the heiress to the Yamanaka Clan. It is common knowledge that their specialty lies in mind based ninjutsu; one of their more famous ones even allows them to transfer their minds into their opponent's body. Young Ino and Hinata are most likely battling for dominance inside of the young Hyuuga's body. The match will continue until there is a clear winner, understood?" said the Hokage in a voice the left no room for argument. Hayate merely nodded in understanding, not wanting to argue with his leader when he was like this.

_With the Clan Heads- At the start of the match_

"This is a truly impressive match," said Shibi Aburame as he and the other clan heads watched the two kunoichi engage in taijutsu, "You should both be proud, your daughters are showing great skill in this match," he said looking over at Inoichi and Hiashi. Inoichi nodded in appreciation with a small smile on his face, Hiashi on the other hand scowled while he watched the match with his Byakugan.

"Hinata is weak, if she acted like a true Hyuuga, this match would have been over after the first strike," said Hiashi, causing frowns to spread across the faces of the other clan heads, while Inoichi scowled at the Hyuuga head.

"Are you implying that my daughter is weak?" said Inoichi in a voice that his team mates knew all too well. _'Shit, not good, I've only heard Inoichi use that tone once before, and that was when someone insulted his wife. Hiashi just insulted Inoichi's daughter… this won't end well,' _was the shared thought of Shikaku and Choza as they watched Inoichi's hand twitch slightly, before they made their move.

Inoichi reached into a hidden pocket inside his jacket and pulled a kunai before he swung at the arrogant Hyuuga clan head. If it wasn't for his Byakugan being activated, Hiashi never would have seen the attack coming. Whirling around, ready to deflect the strike and counter with one of his own, Hiashi was met with the sight a furious Inoichi Yamanaka. The only thing keeping the Yamanaka clan head from shredding Hiashi into ribbons was the timely interference of the remaining members of the Ino-Shika-Cho formation. Shikaku had trapped Inoichi in his shadow, but was forced to use his clans Shadow Strangle to further hold back his team mate, Choza was forced to enlarge his hands to help hold down Inoichi, but even then it was proving difficult.

"You bastard, I'll kill you for talking about my daughter like that!" screamed the enraged Yamanaka as he glared at Hiashi with murder in his eyes. Said Hyuuga clan head, merely ignored the death glare and deactivated his Byakugan before turning to the leave the arena.

"You let your emotions control your actions, you are a poor excuse for a shinobi, and your daughter is no different," said Hiashi as he continued to walk away from the other clan heads.

"Hiashi-san, are you not going to stay and watch the rest of your daughters match?" asked Shibi in his usual Aburame monotone; though behind his grey jacket he was frowning slightly. He and his clan may not show much emotion, but they would never think of ignoring one of their own like Hiashi was ignoring Hinata.

"No, she has proven herself to be weak and unfit to be a member of the Hyuuga Main House. Once these exams are over, she will be branded with the Cage Bird Seal and placed in the Branch Family where she belongs." None of the clan heads could believe what they were hearing, for a father to speak so easily about doing such a thing to his own daughter, was just unthinkable.

"How can someone do that to their pup, it's disgusting," said Tsume as her partner Kuromaru growled at the retreating Hyuuga.

"We may not approve of it, but there is nothing that we can do about, it is their clans tradition," said Shibi, though if one listened close enough, they could hear the small amount of distain that slipped through his normal monotone. The other clan heads reluctantly nodded in agreement before they turned back to the match just as Ino, Hinata and Naruto collapsed.

"Looks like your daughter is finally making her move," said Choza as he watched the unconscious bodies of Ino and Hinata.

"So it seems, but I wonder what your daughter has planned by bringing Naruto into the jutsu," said Tsume who watching her sons team mates unconscious body.

"I think I might know, but we will just have to wait and see," said Inoichi as the minutes continued to tick by.

_With Naruto, Ino and Hinata_

Three young genin stood across from one another in a triangular shape in darkness that seemed to go on forever. Slowly, the color returned to their bodies revealing a very confused Hinata, a frowning Naruto and smirking Ino.

"What the… where am I?" asked Hinata as she put her hands on her head, trying to slow the spinning in her head. It took a few minutes, but Hinata finally managed to compose herself, and thanks to her still activated Byakugan, noticed she wasn't alone. "Naruto-kun," said Hinata as she raised her head to look at the blonde shinobi that across from her. Naruto however, was looking at his girlfriend with a raised eyebrow, who just smirked at him in response.

"Alright Ino-chan, what the heck is going through that little head of yours?" asked Naruto, making Hinata finally take notice of the blonde kunoichi who had stolen Naruto from her.

"You bitch, I'll kill you!" screamed Hinata as she tried to charge at the still smirking blonde kunoichi, only to find she couldn't move. Naruto and Ino turned and watched as Hinata struggled against the invisible force that was holding her. She stopped struggling after a few minutes before turning to glare at Ino, "What the hell did you do to me?"

"I did nothing but bring us here, and just so you know, I can't move either," said Ino as she struggled to move her own body but only succeeded in moving her arms. "The jutsu I used is called the Mind Convergence Jutsu; it allows the users mind and the targets mind to meet in a space apart from their bodies. The only drawback with this jutsu though, is that the users mind isn't in control, the mind with the strongest will has control over everything that happens in this place," said Ino as she turned to head to look at her boyfriend, with Hinata her gaze. Naruto simply raised an eyebrow before sighing and taking a few steps forward, "As you can see, Naruto-kun is the dominant presence here, and therefore the one in control. You and I can't do anything unless he allows it."

"Well that explains things," said Naruto before he turned to Hinata and pointed at her eyes. To the utter shock of Hinata, and even Ino, Hinata's Byakugan deactivated itself before a small seal appeared on Hinata's forehead. "There, with that seal on you, you won't be able to use chakra," said Naruto before turning to Ino and pointing at her forehead, the same seal appearing on her as well.

"Hey, why'd you put one of me!?" asked Ino, her annoyance seeping into her voice.

"Because I don't want either of you trying to kill the other while we talk this out," said Naruto as he looked between the two kunoichi. "Now, we're all going to sit down, relax and talk this out until we come to an understanding, got it?" Ino nodded without hesitation, finally seeing where her boyfriend was going with this. Hinata wouldn't cooperate with them, if she was the only one who was being restricted, but with both of them restricted, and Naruto acting as a mediator, they might just get somewhere.

"But where are we going to sit Naruto-kun, last I checked we're in an endless expanse of darkness," said Hinata. Naruto merely glanced at her before snapping his fingers and the darkness around them vanished. The two kunoichi looked around the new room Naruto had created, and gasped at the sheer beauty of the room. The circular room was made of marble that had elegant carvings of the nine bijuu lining the walls. The glass ceiling was being supported by nine gold pillars, each with the name of one of the bijuu engraved into it. In the center of the room was a small circular table with three chairs around it, each one lined with a fine velvet material.

"Now, if you two would please take a seat," said Naruto as he moved to one of the chairs, Ino following shortly after. Having no other choice, Hinata walked towards the only remaining chair and took a seat, waiting for Naruto to start things off. "Let's begin shall we, Hinata, I know you have feelings for me," said Naruto causing Hinata to blush crimson, "But, your feelings are not what you think they are."

"But I love you Naruto-kun, why can't you see that!?" said Hinata as she tried to stand up, only to find herself held down by the same force as before. Naruto merely glanced over at the now crying heiress before sighing.

"I do see it Hinata," said Naruto causing the Hyuuga heiress to stop struggling from surprise, "But what you feel is not romantic love, but more of a sisterly love for a brother." Hinata looked like she was going to argue, but Ino cut her off.

"Hinata, why do you think you're so nervous around Naruto-kun?" she said, getting a glare from the heiress that was mixed with some confusion. "You're nervous because your heart and your mind are fighting each other, causing you to have mental lapses that are often associated and accompanied by feinting spells." Hinata was about to argue that fact, and rip Ino a new one, but she found it impossible to speak, or open her mouth for that matter.

"Hinata you need to listen to what Ino-chan is saying, you may not like her, but you cannot argue the fact that she knows more about the human mind than you and I combined," said Naruto before he waved his hand slightly, allowing Hinata to speak again. Said heiress went to argue with Ino, but found herself unwilling to and just sat and listened as Ino started up again.

"Hinata, do you know why your heart and mind fight each other Naruto-kun?" asked Ino, but receiving no answer decided to continue, "It's because your heart sees him as the brother figure you never had, but your forcing your mind to think that those sibling like feelings for him, is actually a romantic kind of love." Hinata said nothing, but it was somewhat satisfying to the two blondes, that she had a thoughtful expression on her face. _'Good, she's at least thinking about what we're saying. Now let's try and get her to realize that we're right,' _thought Ino before she asked the question that would either set Hinata free, or condemn her, "Hinata how do you truly feel about Naruto-kun, when you think of him, what goes through your mind?"

"I want to make sure he's safe, that no one will try and take advantage of him and that he's happy," said Hinata, her voice somewhat devoid of emotion. What neither kunoichi noticed though, was Naruto's pinky finger twitch slightly just before Hinata answered. _'Sorry Hinata, but you needed to get over this silly crush before it consumed you. You'll thank me for this one day,' _thought Naruto.

"You see Hinata, those thoughts and feelings are those of sister. You want to make sure Naruto-kun's happy, and deep down, you know that you don't see him the way you've said you do," said Ino before she looked over at Naruto, a silent question in her eyes. Naruto nodded in understanding and waved his hand slightly; Ino smiled and stood up from her seat before walking over to Hinata and wrapping her arm around the now crying Hyuuga heiress. "Come on Hinata, you may not be happy that Naruto isn't the one for you, but there is someone else you know that is very similar to Naruto in more ways than one." Hinata looked up at Ino, a small spark of curiosity and hope in her lavender eyes.

"Really," she asked, her voice strangled from her silent sobs. Ino smiled slightly and pulled the Hyuuga heiress out of her seat and wrapped her into a hug.

"Really," Ino whispered, "Though you may want to give the mutt a flee bath and train him up a little first." Hinata pulled away from the hug slightly and looked at Ino with a confused expression on her face, before what Ino said finally sank in.

"Kiba?" she asked before she felt another hand on her shoulder. Ino and Hinata turned slightly to see Naruto with a small smirk on his lips.

"Kiba," Naruto said with a nod of his head, "You didn't feint Hinata, looks like you finally got your heart and mind to agree."

"Yeah, I guess I did," said Hinata with a small smile, before it turned into a smirk, "After all, it would be kind of weird to date you niisan. I feel sorry for you Ino; you've got your hands full with him." Naruto and Ino starred at the smirking heiress in utter shock, causing her to let out a small string of giggles. It was Ino who got over her shock first, a smirk of her own spreading across her lips.

"Oh he's not that bad, though I think he needs to go through some remedial training," said Ino with a wink at her boyfriend who was sputtering slightly. Shaking his head to regain his composure, Naruto smirked at his girlfriend and newly realized little sister, a very dark and sinister smirk that Ino knew all too well.

"If the two of you forgot, I have complete control in this place," said Naruto and with a snap of his fingers they were back in the endless expanse of darkness.

"Oh we didn't forget, but I know a way to remove that control from you," said Ino before she formed a ram seal and the three genin found themselves back in the arena. Ino turned to look up at her now standing boyfriend, only to see him glaring at her halfheartedly. Turning back to Hinata, she smiled slightly when she noticed the Hyuuga already back in her opening stance. "Shall we finish our match Hinata?" said Hyuuga's only response was to charge forward, a small smile on her lips. Ino smiled as well and matched Hinata's charge with her own, engaging the Hyuuga heiress in taijutsu.

_With the Hokage_

'_Something's different about those two, their attacks are strong, but they aren't aiming to kill like they were before,' _thought Sarutobi, but he almost thought he was mistaken when he saw Ino swing a kunai that would have sliced open Hinata's throat. That was until he noticed Ino slightly alter the trajectory of the kunai so it was easier to block, and if it wasn't the attack wouldn't be lethal. _'They really aren't aiming to kill each other. Something must've happened during their time unconscious, but it seems they don't want anyone else to know about.' _The Hokage turned his head slightly to see his surrogate grandson out of the corner of his eyes. Naruto seemed to sense eyes on him and turned to meet the Hokage's gaze, mouthing 'Later' before turning his attention back to the match.

_In the Arena_

"Well, it's been fun Hinata, but I think it's time we ended this little match of ours," said Ino before she started going through hand signs, ending with the bird sign. "Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu," said Ino before rearing her head back and launching large bullet of water at a shocked Hinata. Quickly going another set of hand signs, Ino finished in the dog sign this time, "Wind Style: Drilling Air Bullet," this time Ino let loose a spinning bullet of wind from her mouth that quickly merged with her water bullet. Hinata didn't have a chance to react as the concussive water bullet hit her head on a knocked into the wall, blissfully unconscious.

Hayate jumped back down into the arena, his face betraying the shock he felt at seeing not one, but two clan heirs use jutsu that weren't there clan based jutsu. This look of shock was mirrored by most of the clan heads, the only exception being Shibi Aburame who merely raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. Kneeling next to the unconscious body of Hinata, Hayate checked her over and found her to be unconscious. Turning back to face the gathered ninja, Hayate spoke in a strangled voice as he held back a coughing fit.

"Winner: Ino Yamanaka," said Hayate. The other members of team 7 all clapped for Ino, as well as the Sand Siblings, but none were more proud then Inoichi who was silently crying anime tears in happiness. Ino made her way up to her team and was greeted with a smiling Naruto who immediately pulled her into a hug. Ending the hug with a quick kiss on the lips, Ino turned and saw Kiba smiling at her with Akamaru barking his happiness from his place on Kiba's shoulders. Kakashi was reverting back to his typical lazy self and merely gave a halfhearted peace sign before pulling out his favorite book and began reading. Said book was snatched from him by a very irritated Ino who's right eyebrow was twitching dangerously while she glared at her perverted sensei. Chuckling slightly, Kakashi congratulated Ino before snatching his book back and stowing it in his weapons pouch. Before Ino could rip into her sensei for the little stunt, Hayate decided to intervene and begin the final round of the prelims. "The final match, will Gaara of the Desert and Yoroi Akado please come down," it seemed Yoroi was rather impatient to begin his match and jumped over the railing, landing in front of Hayate. Gaara, on the other hand, simply turned and begin to slowly walk towards the steps that led into the arena.

"Hey Gaara," called Naruto stopping his fellow jinchuuriki's walk to his match. Slowly turning to face the blonde, Gaara raised an eyebrow in a silent question. "Make this quick would you, I want to hurry up and get out of here," said Naruto a smirk spreading across his lips. Gaara simply smirked in return before continuing on his way to the arena. Once Gaara was standing across from Yoroi, Hayate began to go through his regular proceedings.

"The ninth match; Gaara of the Desert vs. Yoroi Akado, are the two of you ready?" getting a nod from Yoroi and a lazy stare from Gaara, Hayate brought his arm down before jumping away, "BEGIN!"

Yoroi quickly drew a kunai and charged at the Shukaku jinchuuriki, only to be stopped by a wave of sand catching him from behind. Gaara raised his right arm causing the sand to wrap around Yoroi before lifting him up into the air.

"Pathetic," was the last thing Yoroi heard before Gaara closed his hand into a fist and the sand compressed and Yoroi was no more. With his opponent dead, Gaara turned away and began his walk back to his siblings and his friends, his sand going back inside his gourd as he went. Hayate blinked a few times to convince himself that he had just witnessed one of the shortest matches he had ever seen. Shacking off his surprise at the quick match, Hayate called for a medical team to take the body away before addressing the crowd.

"Winner by death: Gaara of the Desert. With that, the prelims are complete, if all of those who won their match would please come down, we will proceed to determining the matches for the finals." All of the genin who won their match made their way down to Hayate and lined up in front of him, waiting for further instructions. "Now, if each of you would please draw a number from the box that Anko is holding, we will determine the matches for the finals." Anko stepped forward and began going down the line of genin, glaring slightly at team 7 as she went. _'Guess she's still sore about us reversing her scare attempt on her, oh well,' _thought all of the members of team seven as they drew their numbers. Once everyone had a number, Hayate asked them to read them off in the same order they drew them.

"5"

"2"

"8"

"6"

"1"

"3"

"9"

"4"

"7"

Ibiki, who had been writing something on a clipboard every time a number was said, turned the clipboard so the genin could see.

"Alright, the first match will be Naruto Uzumaki vs. Neji Hyuuga, followed by Kiba Inuzuka vs. Rock Lee for the second match. The third match is Kankuro vs. Gaara, and then Shikamaru Nara will face Temari for the fourth match. Ino Yamanaka will have a first round bypass and will face the winner of the fourth match," said Hayate. The Hokage stepped forward at the moment and took over for Hayate as he went into a coughing fit.

"Now, the finals will be held in a month's time, I recommend that all of you use this time to train and prepare for your matches. Now, your jounin sensei's will escort you back to the village, I hope to see how each of you has improved," said the Hokage before dismissing everybody and leaving with the clan heads following close behind.

_With team 7- Training ground 7- One hour later_

"Well team, we have a month before the finals, let's get to work shall we?" said Kakashi as stood in front of his team, "Now Kiba, your opponent is a taijutsu specialist, and knowing Guy like I do, he is also insanely fast. We need to up yours and Akamaru's speed and improve on your taijutsu to the point where its second nature to you." Kiba nodded in understanding, while Akamaru just wagged his tail showing he understood. "Ino, you told me that you got a lot of information on medical jutsu from Orochimaru's spy right?" he asked getting a nod of confirmation from the female blonde. "Good, work with that for the month, it would be good for us to have a medic on the team. Now Naruto, your opponent is considered a prodigy of the Hyuuga clan, and even though you know almost everything about their Byakugan and their taijutsu style, you don't know about their clan's secrets kinjutsu. I want you to break into the compound and raid their library, the more you know about your two dojutsu the better, so it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to take a peek inside the Uchiha compound as well."

"Got it sensei, you too get to work, I'll be back tomorrow," said Naruto before giving Ino a quick kiss and high fiving Kiba. The remaining members of team 7 watched as Naruto jumped off towards the Uchiha compound, before getting started on their training. Kiba and Kakashi engaged in a taijutsu spar while Ino sat under a tree and began meditating on everything she learned about medical jutsu from Kabuto.

_With Naruto_

Our favorite blonde shinobi was jumping through the trees at his top speed, easily avoiding any other ninja that came across his path. Stopping on the roof of a building that overlooked the Uchiha compound, Naruto extended his senses to check over the area. _'Hmmm, four large chakra signatures within a hundred yard radius of the main Uchiha home, and judging by the way their being suppressed, there's no doubt their Anbu. I guess the old man doesn't trust that bastards mental health either, oh well, getting past those four shouldn't be too hard,' _thought Naruto. He was about to jump towards the compound before his senses picked up on two more chakra signature, _'What, Anbu never operate in teams of six.' _Closing his eyes, Naruto focused his senses on the faint trace of the two signatures, _'Their chakra is more controlled, but at the same time suppressed to the point that even a highly trained sensor would have trouble finding them.' __**'You're right kit, if it wasn't for my natural animal instincts, even I would have a hard time finding them,' **_said the voice of Naruto's demonic tenant.

'_Hey Kurama, good to hear from you, you've been oddly quite lately,' _said Naruto to his tenant as he kept his senses alert, watching the two unknown ninja carefully. _**'Yeah sorry kit, I've been thinking over a few things for the past few days,' **_Naruto raised an eyebrow slightly at that answer, _'Really, and what have you been thinking about?' _Kurama stayed silent for a few moments choosing his next words wisely.

'_**My**_** cre****ation.'**

_****_**Well everybody, let me know how I did. I don't expect a lot of reviews for this chapter since I haven't updated in months. Sorry to everybody who was hoping for an all out, crazy ass cat fight between Ino and Hinata, but I needed to work the match in a way so that Hinata would get over Naruto and start to like Kiba instead.  
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**Well, until next time then!  
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**BSW  
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